Serted
by oxXDaughterOfAthenaXxo
Summary: Percy had high hopes for a completely normal graduation, but since he's a demigod that would never happen. Especially when the Team and Wonder Woman interfere. Would one last quest give Percy the life he wants? Or will it end with the half-bloods and Justice League at war? Hopefully, we'll find out.
1. Graduating Teens and Invisible Ships

**So this sequel is actually happening! There were a lot of positive reviews of Sulting and a lot more people wanted a sequel than I expected! So enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

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Percy Jackson looked at his reflection in the mirror and smiled at it. His black graduation cap topped his equally dark hair and the gown made him look like a nun. He loved it. To be honest Percy would wear nothing but his birthday suit, he was just happy to be graduating with his class.

"You look so handsome." Sally said as she came up behind him. Her smiling face and small figure was shown in the reflection of his full body mirror.

His mother kissed his cheek, "Thanks." Percy replied as he turned towards her.

She clutched his shoulders and looked him in the eye, "Are you really sure you want to go to college in California."

Percy groaned, "Paul! Mom's questioning my life choices again!"

Paul Blofis popped his head into Percy's room, "Sally let him live his life, he's practically a grown man."

"Plus, I've done tons of more dangerous stuff than going to college."

"And it's free!"

"Yeah, mom, it's free!"

Sally sighed, "It's not about the money! It's about the people!"

Percy raised an eyebrow, "The romans? You love Hazel, Frank, Jason, and Rey-"

"I like them!" Sally interrupted, "But what about the evil, manipulating ones you told me about?"

"That's Octavian, and he exploded anyway."

Sally seemed like she was going to retort but there was a hard knock at the door.

"That must be Annabeth." Percy said, happy for a distraction.

Paul had already opened the door when Percy and Sally walked out of his room. Annabeth stood in the living room in a short grey dress, which shocked her boyfriend. She kept a suspiciously large bag at her side and still wore her familiar silver owl earrings.

"You look great." Percy said as he ruffled her curly blonde hair.

She pushed him away and greeted Sally with a hug.

"So, Annabeth…"

"Yes Ms. Jac- Blofis." she said.

"Are you going to that roman college too?" Annabeth immediately frowned in confusion.

"C'mon Annie!" Percy said quickly as he rushed her out of the house. "We're gonna be late if we don't move along. See you guys later!" he quickly shut the door behind himself.

"What was that about?" Annabeth asked a bit confused.

"Nothing important." Percy said passively. The couple got into Annabeth's car and began their drive to Goode High School.

Annabeth continuously glancing at Percy and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel in a nervous fashion.

Percy sighed, "Okay, what's wrong?"

"It's just that…" Annabeth trailed off.

"You don't think it's safe for me to go outside yet?" he said with amusement.

"It's okay for you to go outside!" she said quickly, "But this is so out in the open, everyone can you see you!"

Percy smiled at his girlfriend and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "It'll be fine some of the strongest demigods will be there. They already know not to underestimate us."

In case you're confused Leo, Reyna, Nico, Frank, and Calypso had told the rest of the Seven about their great escape from the clutches of superpowered good-doers. The Seven, Reyna, Calypso, Chiron, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and the head counselors were the only ones (they actually seem like quite a lot of people if you list them) who knew about what happened. They were trying to avoid mass panic in the camps, so it was to be kept on the down low.

Leo and Calypso hadn't been able to get much information out the superheroes but they were able to realize that their true target was Percy all along. They also knew that no one in the Justice League, save Princess Diana, knew about the existence of demigods. It needed to stay that way, the half-bloods weren't looking for war and they doubt that the superheroes were too.

Annabeth smiled back at her boyfriend. "I'm glad it's just us, Nico, Reyna, Grover, Rachel, and Calypso." By us she meant the Seven. They were her team and her equals, "All of CHB wanted to come."

"Imagine that!" Percy said with a laugh, "A bunch of armored teenagers marching out onto the field."

Annabeth laughed too, "With Clarisse leading them!: 'Hey, Jackson, I hope you're smart enough to wear pants under that dress!'" Annabeth laughed even harder at her imitation of the daughter of Ares's voice, but she heard Percy's laughter die out.

She looked at her boyfriend. Percy looked straight in front of himself with pursed lips.

"Please tell me that you…"

"How was I supposed to know that I needed pants!"

"Oh my gods you can't actually be this stupid." Annabeth said exasperated.

"I thought it was like a dress! You don't wear pants under a dress!"

"It's a graduation gown, you always wear clothes under a gown, Seaweed Brain!"

"Just drive us back home."

-(Line Break)-

The football field of Goode High School was completely remade for the graduation. There were folding chairs in neat rows and columns on the field and a stage was pushed out in front of the chairs. Friends and family of the students filled the bleachers that usually hold fans who come to football games.

Percy scanned the crowds on the bleachers and found his friends and family. It was pretty easy considering they were all holding a very large sign that read: WE'RE SURPRISE YOU MADE IT THIS FAR TOO. It was attracting a bunch of stares.

"Are you sure this is a good idea." Grover asked looking at the sign Piper, Hazel, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare held together.

"This is an amazing idea!" Piper said with a blinding smile.

"You only say that because you three came up with it." Jason said with a smirk. He was dressed in jeans and his old Camp Jupiter shirt. He the only one present who wasn't dressed formally. Even Nico was wearing a white dress shirt but still kept his black boots and ripped jeans.

Frank smiled nervously at Nico who did not return is uneasy happiness. The Chinese-Canadian got stuck sitting next to Ghost King because Hazel abandoned him to hold an embarrassing poster.

"So…" Frank started trying to make conversation, "Where do you think Leo and Calypso are?"

"Not here... luckily." Nico said under his breath. "I'm only here because Ms. Jacks- Blofis promised me blue cake."

Sally looked up at the son of Hades, "Cake that you'll get when you put a smile on your face." Nico attempted to smile but it looked more like he was baring his teeth.

Sally turned around, "Now… Annabeth where's Percy again?" Sally asked.

"He's the one in the middle of the right section. He's the only one with a bright green trident on his cap."

"Oh, I see him!" Sally pulled out her camera and began snapping pictures. "PERCY, HONEY! LOOK OVER HERE!" she screamed as loudly as possible.

The outburst was followed by laughter that erupted from everyone on the field. Percy, naturally, stood and waved at his mother causing the students and crowd to laugh even harder.

"Sally!" Paul said through clenched teeth, "Sit down! You're embarrassing him!"

Sally sat down, "He's fine, look he's enjoying the attention."

Annabeth sighed and Reyna patted her on the back in a comforting way, very un-Reyna of her. She must be in a good mood today.

"Don't worry Annabeth," she whispered to her, "Nothing more eventful than that should happen today."

Annabeth hoped she didn't just jinx them all.

-(Line Break)-

Percy yawned as they went through the long list of names, most people he didn't know. He was kind of feeling nervous. He had already been embarrassed once today (twice if you count forgetting to wear pants), he wasn't looking to fall flat on his face in front of all these people.

"Perseus Jackson" Was it his turn to go up already? A loud rumble of cheers echoed in a specific area of the bleachers, of course, it was where his friends and family were. He waved nervously at them again as walked to the stage.

It was silly, he's over here worrying about getting a piece of paper from an old guy in charge of a bunch of teens, when he's faced off against monsters, titans, and everything in between. This was no big deal. The worse thing that could happen was a god (if it was really the worse case scenario it would be Zeus) could come falling from the sky and abduct him for some quest. Or he could be abducted in general. By aliens, or something like that.

The walk to the stage seemed ridiculously long, but finally climbing up those steps and shaking the hands of all the school officials, it felt like he was turning a new page in his life. He could move to New Rome, go to college, and live with Annabeth. No more quests no more monsters, just him and Annabeth living together like normal people. Percy got to the principal, shook his hand, and reached for his diploma.

Suddenly something hit him in the neck, it only felt like a mosquito bite but the effect was immediate. He felt tired and dazed, darkness approached him quickly. It was too late to see who did it, he was already on the ground. But he had a moment to think: Wow, I really hope these aren't aliens.

Annabeth watched the scene play out in silence. Suddenly she found herself running down to the field while pulling the Drakon Bone Sword out of her purse. Worry was consuming her. Stop, she told herself, and think. That's what she did best.

She began assessing the situation. What happen? Percy passed out. Why did he pass out? Something hit him, she saw him touch his neck. It could be a dart of some kind. Probably filled with poison. Most importantly, who did it? If it was a monster, they would've just eaten him. The giants, titans, and Gaea were all history. The gods would have at least tried to be more subtle. She was missing something, a big clue.

Out of no where, Percy's (hopefully) sleeping body started floating. There's her clue. Who could turn invisible and had a grudge again- Annabeth didn't even finish her own thought, she already knew the answer. The Justice League.

The problem was Annabeth had to be able to see them to beat them. She looked around and saw Jason making his way over to Percy, armed with his gladius. He was flying. She looked back at the stage. There were still a large stack of diplomas waiting to be handed to the students.

"Jason!" she screamed, it caught his attention immediately. "Wind! Blow the wind… papers!" The words weren't coming out of her mouth right. Her mind was caught between worrying over Percy and processing the situation. Where did the attack come from? Were there more than one of them? Was it the red-headed martian Leo talked about that was lifting Percy away from her? Did the stage seem to be getting farther and farther away or was it just her?

Jason looked really confused for about 2 seconds, then he seem to understand what she was saying and flew faster to the stage. He swooped down near the stage and started up a big gust of wind to move the certificates but still wasn't strong enough to pick Percy up.

The papers all flew in one direction and hit something that neither Annabeth nor Jason could see. But the being covered in paper gave the demigods an advantage, the person was visible and confused. Annabeth stopped for a second to watch what happened next.

Jason raised his gladius and willed it into a javelin. Suddenly, the sky got dark and lightning flashed brightly. The loudest clap of thunder Annabeth had ever heard followed the lightning. Jason's javelin was raised so high that Annabeth was afraid it would attract lightning itself and he aimed for the floating diplomas. That's when she realized something.

"Wait! Jason-" she tried to scream, but it was too late. Jason let his javelin go. It flew through the air and hit its target spot on. But the only damage it did was to the papers. There was a small, burning hole in the middle of one of the certificates.

Jason looked puzzled. "Hey Annabeth," he called over at her, "I think they're mortal."

"Really?" she called back, "I would've never known."

Jason seemed like he was going to say some witty retort, but was interrupted by a large object flying through the air and hitting him. It was obviously not one's normal flying debris. It was actually quite small and it promptly attached to Jason's body at the place it hit him. Which happened to be his neck. As soon as the object was fastened to him, Jason began falling. Annabeth heard him cry out, she didn't know if it was in fear or surprise, as he fell and heard his loud grunt when he landed. He laid still, probably knocked out (again). If it was a normal person they would have died, good thing it was Jason.

"Bullseye!" a voice cried. A head popped out from behind the stage. It looked like a younger kid, maybe Hazel's age, he had black hair and a playful smile on his face. He had a mask on so it was hard to see the rest of his face. Finally Annabeth thought, a target I can see. She raced towards the stage, running faster than the way she was before. But someone was much faster than her. So much so that they were a blur, all she did was blink and Percy and Jason were gone.

Annabeth looked around. The black-haired boy was long gone and the diplomas had lost their shape and now laid flat against the ground. She searched for where they had gone, the black-haired boy, the invisible man, and the speedy blur.

Then there was a big blast of wind that blew everything around her. It wasn't Jason, he had a lot more control than that. She heard a sound, like something was taking off. It was really, really loud, then it got quieter and quieter, until it was gone. Annabeth looked around, perplexed. Then she almost facepalmed at her stupidity.

They took off. In an invisible plane. Leo mentioned that.

The students, the crowd, and the school officials were all quiet for a moment, then they all panicked at once. The kidnappings finally settled into their minds. While this commotion surrounded her, Annabeth sunk to the ground. For the third time in her life she had lost Percy Jackson. But she quickly regained hope, because this was the first time out of those three that she actually knew where he was.

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 **The original ending was Leo and Calypso popping up at the graduation late with Starbucks, asking what they missed.**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up hopefully next week!**


	2. Kidnapped Teens and Mysterious Voices

**I meant to post this earlier today but I wanted to do some last minute editing. Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

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The Team all gathered in the Bio-Ship and congratulated themselves on their successful kidnapping.

Raquel, who was still trying to get a hang of this, looked uncomfortable. "Should we really be this happy that we just kidnapped someone from their graduation?" she questioned. She glanced at the now gownless Perseus Jackson, both his cap and gown fell off when Kid Flash ran him into the ship.

"We're not happy because we kidnapped someone," Wally said, "We're happy because we successfully kidnapped someone."

Raquel still didn't look comfortable with that explanation but Robin high-fived the speedster. "Plus," Robin said with a smile, "We got another person, as a bonus."

"You'll get used to it." Zatanna said to Raquel with a smile.

Zatanna looked at the 2 teens who were tied up in the back of the Bio-Ship. Perseus Jackson was apparently some big villainous character but he actually looked friendly, at least when he's asleep. He was tall and muscular, but lean at the same time. He was also quite a bit older than her (at least 4 years considering he was graduating) and handsome, not like that had anything to do with the former statement. Same went for the blond, bespectacled stranger, but he seemed a little bigger than Jackson. Zatanna wanted to claim that she was sizing them up, if there was some type of struggle, but it was much more like she was checking them out.

She moved closer to the boys to get a better look, then she saw something weird on their arms. She moved until she was a few inches from their bodies, she held the blond's arm in her hand and inspected the black markings. It was an eagle with a lot of lines and the letters S, P, Q, and R. She turned to Jackson and flip over his arm only to see similar markings, but instead of an eagle, he had a trident and only one line.

Free them. Zatanna jumped and looked around. She looked at M'gann but she showed no sign of even acknowledging Zatanna, she was too engrossed in a (one-sided) conversation with Conner. She turned back to Jackson and she heard the voice again. Free them. This time instead of jumping she squeezed his arm a little too hard. The teen groaned, like he was waking from a long nap. Zatanna dropped his arm and quickly stepped away.

She turned towards her Team, "Guys, I think he's waking up." The Team promptly turned away from whatever conversations they were having to look at Jackson. He was starting to struggle against his binds.

"Here," Artemis said, handing Zatanna an Inhibitor Collar, "Just put this on him."

Zatanna quickly fastened the collar onto him. Robin patted her shoulder, "Told you it was a good idea to bring an extra collar."

Jackson didn't open his eyes but spoke anyway, "So this is what it feels like to be Jason." his voice was strained like he was still half asleep.

He opened his eyes slowly, "If you're gonna eat us just do it now and get it over with." He blinked a couple more times to clear his eyes. Then he looked at the superheroes with surprise.

What really surprised them is when he smiled, "Thank the gods!" he said with excitement, "You're not monsters!"

He turned towards the blond and elbowed him wake. "Hey Jason. Jason! Guess what?" he said once the teen groggily opened his eyes. "They're mortals!"

The blond boy, Jason, looked much less animated. "Yay. Mortals." he said with his eyes were still barely opened behind his skewed glasses.

Zatanna thought that this was going to be a much more normal experience than she had with the other two. Now she knew she thought wrong.

-(Line Break)-

Zatanna sat in front of Jason Grace in one of the interrogation room. They were alone, everyone else decided to watch Jackson's interrogation instead. They took Grace's fingerprints and did a few DNA test and finally learned who he was, but just like Jackson, he had a large bit of his file missing. Especially the part of his file where it described how he came back to life. Grace was supposed to be dead. In fact, he had died when he was two years old, technically he went missing but was never found and presumed dead. Same went for his sister, Thalia Grace, a few years after he "died". They're mother was an 80's starlet who suffered from alcohol abuse later in her life, which was also the cause of the car accident that killed her. A family filled with tragedy.

He seemed much more serious than Jackson, he was a man of few words. Or he hated her. Which made a lot of sense considering they kidnapped them. She continuously try to lighten the mood and get him to talk, a skill she learned from Black Canary.

"So…" Zatanna started, "How'd you get that scar?" Not a great mood-lightener. He seemed very stoic and probably got it in a bad fight or something.

"I tried to eat a stapler." he said with the same stony expression.

Zatanna put her head on the table and sighed. She knew she shouldn't be showing so much weakness in front of the enemy, but this was going nowhere. What was she even interrogated him for? All the information was with Jackson. Raquel should be doing this job since she was the new kid on the block.

Why haven't I used magic on him? She asked herself. But whenever she thought that, there was a voice that whispered for her not to. The voice was a quiet, wispy, and alluring. Zatanna wanted to find the person with the voice and listen to them speak up close. But at the same time it was like an annoying hissing in the back of her mind, reminding her that she wasn't alone. This wasn't the first time she had heard the voice either. When Leo Valdez and his mysterious girlfriend escaped that's when she first heard the voice. But it usually came to her in weird, trippy dreams, never when she was awake. It made it hard to sleep at night. But it talked to her 24/7 and it was kind of driving her crazy.

If you listen to what I say you're suffering would end. Give yourself to me and I will grant you eternal-

"Would you shut up for once!" Zatanna screamed at nothing.

Grace raised an eyebrow.

Zatanna smiled, "Sorry, I'm hear things. Like stupid voice that will not shut up." she kind of grumbled that last part. "But let's not talk about me, let's talk you."

Apparently Grace heard what she said about stupid voice because he was asking her odd questions. "What kind of voices? Are they telling you to do things? Do you want to listen to them?"

His electric blue eyes met her own, "Are you one of us?"

"What do you mean?" Zatanna felt the control of the interrogation slipping from her hands.

"Do you always feel like you're being watched? How's your relationship with your biological family? How many times in the last few months have you almost died?"

"Woah, slow down." The magician was more than surprised. This is the most he's talked since the kidnapped him.

"None of that stuff?" he said with surprise. "Well maybe you aren't a demigod."

"A demigod? Like the stuff from legends?"

"Like the stuff from myths." he corrected.

"But none of that is real, though. It's just a silly religion made up by some crazy Greeks."

Grace winced, "You shouldn't say."

Zatanna was about to ask him what the problem was but she found out for herself. The voice in her head became less charming and more authoritative.

HOW DARE YOU REFER TO THE GODS AS SILLY. YOU SHOULD WATCH YOUR TONGUE MORTAL CHILD.

Zatanna gripped her head as if she was trying to keep it from splitting. "Oh. My. God." she said in pain.

"Gods, actually." Grace said, amusement was laced in his voice.

"Okay, Grace. You better explain what's going on right now." Since her head was still spinning so her threat was less than empty.

"It's Jason." Jason smiled (he really was quite handsome). "And I'd be happy to tell you anything."

-(Line Break)-

Percy continued to hum the tune that was stuck in his head. It didn't help it go away, of course. But he really did like the sound of it, if only he could remember what song it was from. The young (well, he wasn't quite so young anymore) son of Poseidon looked up at his oppressors. They didn't look older than himself. The girl, who was standing, was Artemis. Which couldn't possibly be a coincidence because she was also holding a bow. She had blonde hair and a scowl on her face, a lot like Annabeth but a lot less scary.

"We would like it of you would answer at least a few of our questions, Mr. Jackson." And then there was this guy. His name was Aqualad, which is really weird. Percy assumed that it was his superhero name and he was Aquaman's sidekick. He kept calling him Mr. Jackson and asking him weird questions. He actually remind him a lot of Jason.

They didn't look alike, though. Aqualad had a shaved blond head and dark skin which had a bunch of black tattoos on it. He held himself up high and had a natural aura of authority. The three of them could probably be friends if they weren't in such a… compromising position. But Percy was much more worried about the tune he was humming.

"Mr. Jackson… ." Aqualad's voice rose and Percy looked up.

"Yes."

"It would be easier for all of us if you just tell us the location of your headquarters. All we're doing now is wasting precious time. We don't wish to start a war with your people, we just wish to speak together with them."

Percy continued humming and stared at Aqualad for a long time. His humming grew more and more intense until he suddenly stopped.

"I know it!" Percy said with excitement.

"What?" Aqualad and Artemis said together.

"It's Hollaback Girl!" The two superheroes looked at him with unmistakable confusion.

"By Gwen Stefani. You know, the song!" Percy had finally figured out what he was humming, which is a big accomplishment for him. He began singing the song very tonelessly.

Meanwhile outside of the interrogation room, the rest superheroes were dumbstruck with how idiotic the diabolical Perseus Jackson actually was.

"Wow…" Wally said, being the first to break the silence.

Robin rubbed his chin and smirked, "I didn't think we would ever meet anyone stupider than KF."

Superboy stared at Percy with a straight face (as usual), "Yeah, that's really hard to accomplish."

"I'm just surprised," M'gann said, "I expected him to be some terrible villain."

"I wasn't expecting anything, to be honest. His file never says he was responsible for the events that happened when he was present, it just said he was in the area." Robin said.

"Now I feel kind of bad for kidnapping him. It was in the middle of his graduation." M'gann looked worried, "He didn't even get to touch his diploma."

Raquel crossed her arms. "Now, you're starting to realize how weird this is."

Conner put his arm around his girlfriend, "If he would just answer Aqualad's question he would already be out of here."

"Maybe I should look into his mind." she said as she took a step forward.

"No," Conner said gripping her a little tighter, "Remember what happened to Martian Manhunter when he tried to read that kid's mind?"

"Yeah, but he could control fire!" M'gann countered.

"Not taking any chances." the three boys said in unison. M'gann and Raquel just rolled their eyes.

In the meantime Aqualad was trying to keep his patient with Percy. He was starting to get annoyed and Percy enjoyed it. If Annabeth were here she would be proud of him. Weighing down the enemy's confidence by asking pointless questions and playing stupid. Actually, Percy wasn't really playing stupid, considering that he had no idea why he was here or what he had done. In fact, he wanted a few of his own questions answered.

"Why am I even here?" His first and foremost question.

"You are here to answer are questions Mr. Jackson." Aqualad said. "And depending on your response, you will be out of here as quickly as possible."

"So what you're saying is if I don't say what you want to hear, you'll leave me here to rot?"

Aqualad exhaled, "No that is the opposite of what I mean, Mr. Jackson. All we want is honesty."

"My kind of honesty or your kind of honesty?" Percy questioned with narrow eyes.

Aqualad seemed to be losing his patient little by little. He rubbed his face with both of his hands and tried to calm down. After he put his hands down Percy stared at them with a bewildered expression.

"Your hands…" he started.

"Yes…" Aqualad looked up, this is the most serious Percy has been since he arrived.

"They're webbed." Percy looked at his face more intensely, "And you have gills."

Before Aqualad had a chance to respond Percy jumped up, "If you're a merperson why am I all chained up?" he screamed, shaking his handcuffs as he motioned to the Inhibitor Collar.

Artemis immediately took out her bow and aimed it at him, but Percy still didn't settle down. "Are you from Camp Fish-Blood? Is this is about your undersea politics? I swear not all humans suck. And not all of my half siblings are bad, you guys trained Triton and he was fine! But I think he hates humans so that's not a good example. My father is like your king or something, so can you just give me a one time pass for whatever I did?"

Artemis was slowly putting her bow down as she tried to process everything he just said. Aqualad seem to have gotten it on the first try but he was still confused. "Camp Fish-Blood? I have heard of no such place. I am not a merperson, I am an Atlantean and our politics have nothing to do with your capture."

Percy furrowed his brows, "Atlantis?"

"Yes, Atlantis." Aqualad continued, "But I am still confused, who is your father?" Aqualad was pretty sure that his king was not Perseus's father.

"Poseidon." he replied nonchalantly. But Aqualad's calm expression faltered for a second.

"So you are the son of Poseidon?"

"Yup!" Percy said with a smile, "His only demigod one. He has a bunch of cyclops kids and a few godly ones, but I'm his only half-blood, that I know of."

Aqualad stared into space for a long time. He looked as if he were calculating something and got lost in thought.

"Aqua-" Artemis reached to touch his shoulder but he suddenly stood up.

"Artemis," he said in a low voice, "I think it is best if you take the others and go check the progress on the League's mission."

"But-" she protest.

"I think I need to talk alone with Mr. Jackson." Artemis hesitated but nodded.

The archer left the interrogation room and closed the door quietly. The rest of the Team stared at her.

"Is it just me or was that…" Wally started.

"Weird. Yeah, that was out of character." Robin finished.

M'gann was more confused than surprised, "Who's Poseidon?" Conner shared her expression.

"He's the greek god of the sea," Robin answered, "And earthquakes, storms and horses for some reason." Robin sounded like he had more to say but Artemis interrupted him.

"You can talk about gods later, Kaldur wants us to leave him alone."

"Why don't we check up on Zatanna and her prisoner?" Raquel asked with emphasis on prisoner.

"Kaldur wants us see the how the League's doing on their mission." Artemis said.

"Fine," Robin said, throwing his hands up, "If Aqualad doesn't want the Interrogation Hall to be serted he should have said so."

"Serted?" M'gann asked, repeating the word.

"Like the opposite of deserted."

"Leave it to Robin to make words much more complicated than need." Wally said while he threw his arm over his best friend's shoulder.

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Let's just go to the mission room."

The remaining members of the Team left the window of the room, but Artemis took one more look at Kaldur than she followed her teammates.

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 **It's actually really hard to find a word that you can prefix off of and it won't make any sense.**

 **Thank you for reading! Hopefully a new chapter will be up next week!**


	3. Counseling Teens and Surprise Guests

**Okay so first things first: I'm so sorry that this is so late! I meant to post this earlier but school is starting tomorrow and I have an exchange student and I've just been really busy. But next time I'll have the next chapter up early to apologize for this one being late.**

 **Anyway, enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

Annabeth took the deepest breath she possibly could and slammed her hands against the ping-pong table. Instantly, the whole Rec Room went quiet.

"Now that we're all settled," Annabeth said, addressing the Stoll brothers mostly, "We can get down to business." All head counselors were seated and silent around the ping-pong, Jason and Percy's seats should have been empty but were currently being filled by Reyna and Frank.

"We already know who took them and we already know where th-"

Clarisse jumped up, "Then why don't we go over there and get 'em!"

"Clarisse, please sit down." Chiron said gesturing towards her seat. The daughter of Ares took her seat angrily

Annabeth sighed and continued, "We already know the location of their base. We've invaded them before but the problem with doing it this time…"

"They'll know we're coming." Reyna said.

"Yes," Annabeth nodded, "If we broke into their HQ before to save someone, there is no reason why we won't do it again. They'll be ready this time."

"But, we can't just leave them there." Katie said.

"Well, maybe we should make a team of people to infiltrate their base," Butch said sitting up, "Just in case we have to rescue them."

Annabeth nodded at her, "All in favor of forming a team in the event of a rescue say 'Aye'." A chorus of Ayes echoed through the room.

"Great, anyone have any suggestions?"

The Stoll brothers raised their hands in unison. Annabeth, regretfully, acknowledged them, "Conner, Travis."

"You should send us." Connor said happily.

Travis continued for him, "We've got a bunch of new tricks we want to try out."

Lou Ellen laughed, "All in favor of never letting the Stolls do anything as important as this say 'Aye'." Everyone but Conner and Travis said 'Aye'.

"Any _serious_ suggestions?" Annabeth asked again.

"I'd be fine with going again." Leo said, "Plus I've gotta make up for not being there when they got Jason."

Piper looked at him, "It isn't your fault Leo!"

"I know but I should've been there at least! That martian- maybe I would've been able to scare her off!"

"You shouldn't carry that on you shoulders, Leo. But you can be apart of the team." Annabeth said. "Who else?"

Pollux, who was usually quiet, spoke up, "Why don't we send all the people who've already been there?"

"Yeah!" Katie smiled at Pollux, "Since they've been there they know their way around!"

" _And_ they already know the abilities of their opponents." Butch agreed.

Clarisse grumbled, obviously upset that she might not be going, "That isn't completely stupid." But she still agreed.

"All in favor of sending those who have already been to the enemy's HQ say 'Aye'" Annabeth said, once again.

Everyone said 'Aye'. Well, _almost_ everyone. Annabeth wasn't surprised, "All who are opposed say 'Nay'"

Three voices said 'Nay' in unison. Everyone looked at Reyna, Frank, and Will. "What are your reasons." Annabeth asked.

"Having gone there for the first rescue, I'd like the specify that our enemies aren't idiots." Reyna said, "In fact, they're quite intelligent. My guess is that they'll know we'll send the same people because we're accustomed to their base. They will be waiting for us to make the same moves and slip up."

Will nodded in agreement, "They know us now. And you guys fought them, which means they know how you'll attack and how skillful you are. We know the same about them, but it sounds like they're more technologically advanced than us. _And_ ," he said looking at the son of Hades, "Nico's werewolf scratch doesn't heal so I want to keep him under observation in the infirmary."

"You let me leave last time!" Nico said harshly.

"I didn't let you leave, you escaped!"

"I took a walk, I needed some fresh air."

"You took a walk _all the way to Rhode Island_!"

Annabeth cleared her throat and the two boys silenced themselves, she tried to ignored the wiggly eyebrows that Reyna was giving Nico.

"Frank." The Chinese-Canadian boy jumped at the sound of his name. He gave Annabeth a confused look.

"You said 'Nay' so I assumed you had something to say."

"Oh, I- I do, sorry." Annabeth almost laughed, Frank changed a lot since he first got on the Argo II, but he was still clumsy and shy off the battlefield.

"I was just thinking that we might not be able to get in their base this time." Whispers travelled around the room and Frank tried to defend himself, "I mean, like, we had help last time and there were a bunch of codes and numbers and secret passageways involved. They probably changed a lot of things since then, in case we ever tried again."

"That's true. I don't think we could get in there this time." Reyna said, impressed by her fellow praetor.

Annabeth sighed, "Why can't we call whoever you called to get you in?"

"They're a really important person. I doubt they would answer our cry for help again." Reyna said.

"Who'd ya call?" Clarisse said, "Zeus himself!"

The door to the Rec Room burst open, "No, but close." Princess Diana stood in the open door in all her glory. In her usual Wonder Woman costume but with pants and golden armor. There was a sword strapped to her back and a shield in her hand, she looked ready for a war.

"Let us prepare for battle brothers and sisters!" Her wide smile betrayed her words.

All the demigods and Chiron slowly bent towards the ground and bowed to her. Everyone showed her respect that she deserved. Everyone except Clovis, who was currently taking one of his infamous naps.

"Colvis!" Annabeth whispered loudly at him and slammed her fist under the table.

Clovis woke up with a start and looked right at the beautiful Princess Diana. He blinked lazily and put his head back on the table. "It's just one of those weird dreams again."

"I am Diana of Themyscira, Amazonian warrior princess and daughter of Zeus, I hope I can help you in your upcoming battle!"

Annabeth stood up quickly, "Wait! What battle, we were-"

"I hope you do not mind, but I brought an ally for our cause."

She motioned at the door and on cue another member of the Justice League walked in. He an orange shirt, that looked like it was made of scales, and tight black pants on. His blond hair had a beard to match and Annabeth noted that he was lacking shoes and had green fins. His clothes looked painted on and she heard Katie softly admire this fact.

"I am Orin, King of Atlantis and the Seven Seas."

The demigods begun to stand. "Wow, we have the whole royal family here, don't we?" Nico said under his breath.

Will elbowed him, "Shut up, Ghost King."

"I am also known as Aquaman." Annabeth finally recognized him. Leo has said several times on the Argo II that Percy was basically the dark-haired Aquaman.

He look at all the demigods with indifference. "I don't approve of using children to fight my battles but I will do what it takes to save the son of Neptune."

"Wait, what battles do you think-"

Annabeth tried to speak but was interrupted again by the princess, "We must discuss strategies. Our enemies are smart ones, but it isn't something we haven't conquered!" No one seemed to be showing her enthusiasm.

" _We_?" Frank whispered to Reyna. She shrugged and looked more amused than frustrated like Annabeth.

Princess Diana pulled out a map, seemingly from nowhere and laid it out on the table. "We must enter from this point here, hopefully we can get archers at this point. They might release their forces here and-"

"Princess Diana!" Annabeth said loudly. Everyone turned towards her.

"We need to talk about this in private. Meeting adjourned! Everyone back to your cabins, not a word about to the other campers." They hesitated for a moment. But their fear of Annabeth won over their idolization of Diana and they filed out. Only Reyna stayed.

"Why don't I introduce you to the Nereids in the lake?" Aquaman took Chiron's offer and followed him out the door.

Annabeth took a deep breath and looking at Princess Diana, "Reyna and I will take you around the camp."

-(Line Break)-

Annabeth thought about the aftermath of Percy's (second) kidnapping. Mrs. Ja- Blofis legitimately passed out and Paul caught her just in time. Annabeth had to explain the whole Justice League thing to them, which was a big mess. Though it wasn't as big of a mess as the graduation ceremony, but it was nothing a little (actually it was a lot) of charmspeak couldn't fix. At times like this Annabeth wished she wasn't born a half-blood, but then she remembered that she would have never met Percy.

"That is a beautiful statue." Princess Diana said, drawing her attention back to the tour.

Annabeth looked at Athena Parthenos, "It's the pride of our camp. Reyna delivered it here herself."

"Did she?"

"Yes, I did." Reyna said with a frown. Annabeth noticed that Reyna had gotten more friendly since the end of the war, but she was still untrustworthy of people she didn't know well. Reyna's dogs, Aurum and Argentum, followed behind her, proving that she doesn't trust Princess Diana much.

"It was the son of Hades in the meeting room, a satyr, and I who delivered it together." Reyna said.

"I recall seeing the boy, Nico di Angelo, there. It must have been a treacherous journey."

Reyna narrowed her eyes at the princess, "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"How about we show you around New Athens?" Annabeth said trying to lighten the mood. She steered them to the camp's new capital.

New Athens was something that Jason and Annabeth thought of together, it was going to be New Rome's sister city. Clarisse really wanted to name it New Sparta but there was a unanimous vote against it. Annabeth was more than excited to see the city in it's full glory, she had made the blueprints herself and was overseeing the construction with the help of Leo. Since he came back the city was growing at a rapid rate and would soon be open to all the demigods.

"This is going to be beautiful." Princess Diana said looking at the half finished buildings and the paved roads and sidewalks.

"It should be." Annabeth said with a smile. "We should have a seat." she said motioning to a newly built bench.

The three women sat together on the bench in silence. "I apologize if I offended you in anyway." Princess Diana said sincerely.

Annabeth was surprised, "No, no! We aren't offended at all Princess-"

"Just Diana is fine."

"We aren't offended at all Diana, it's just that your arrival was sudden. Plus we didn't expect you to be pro-war."

"It is not that I enjoy bloodshed," Diana said, "It's that I think that is our best call in this situation."

"What's the problem with negotiation?" Reyna questioned.

"Batman, who is more or less our leader, seems to be unusually afraid of what he doesn't understand this time." There was a lot of worry in her voice. "The Justice League- no, we are not bad people. But sometimes… we don't make the right decisions when we are not thinking straight."

"Like what you did?" Reyna muttered, "When you barged in and started ordering us around, like children."

"Reyna!" Annabeth said with surprise.

"It is fine, we are all equals here." Diana sighed. "And she is right, I acted rashly."

"Do you think we could negotiate?" Annabeth asked.

"I think it would be good to try, at least." Reyna said.

Diana nodded, "Yes, we could try… if they were here."

"What?" the demigods said in unison.

"They have gone on a mission in Africa. Not just a country but _all_ of Africa. The Joker put laughing gas and other toxins in their food and other supplies. No one really knows how. The whole League was deployed." Diana smiled, "Save for Aquaman and I. The heat became too intense for the Atlantean and I was assigned to watch our base."

Reyna smiled right back at her, "Do they always give the girls boring missions?"

"Sometimes, but that isn't the case this time. I offered once I heard that they assigned the young ones with capturing Perseus Jackson."

"The same people who took Leo and Calypso?" Annabeth asked. It was more of a question to herself than anyone else. "We could try to explain our situation to them, maybe they would understand."

"I'm sure they would understand better than their adult counterparts." Diana gave Annabeth a surprised look but nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, Aquaman's protege is in the Team. If he finds out Perseus is the demigod son of Poseidon he'll most likely try to break him out."

Reyna stood up, "Then we should gather a team and head over there before he does anything reckless."

"Agreed."

Annabeth smiled, "It's settled. We're going to Rhode Island."

* * *

 **I don't know if you guys know this but in recent comics Wonder Woman is a daughter of Zeus but she wasn't before, in case anyone was confused about that.**

 **A lot of you said that you hoped that I would make the chapters and the story itself longer this time around. You'll be happy to know I'm hoping to get the real story started in the next chapter. This is really only the beginning.**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up hopefully earlier than next week!**


	4. Angry Teens and Failed Escapes

**Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

"Well, that's weird. I don't think I could be one of you." Zatanna said as a response to Jason's story. He told her about how demigods are picked up and dropped off at Camp Half-Blood and live the rest of their lives out there. He mentioned another camp that's harsher but didn't go into details, he didn't even say the name. He left out a lot of details, his trust in Zatanna was limited.

"But do you believe me?" he asked her.

Zatanna hesitated but nodded. "I don't know why but… I feel like I should trust you. And you said that you might be able to get this voice out of my head so..."

"I can't get it out, but I can help you understand why it's bothering you." Jason said, "My friend, Frank, has the same problem, but it's with two gods of war. But they gave him an awesome power up that makes him look like he's been 'roid raging. In a good way, I mean."

Zatanna actually laughed. Here she was conversing with the enemy and taking his word that there were a bunch of gods up there in the sky. And one might be her mother, who she thought had passed away. "Okay, so why do you think this voice is giving me a mega headache?"

"He could be trying to court you." Jason said with a shrug.

"That can't be it, I think the voice is a woman."

"That doesn't make a difference to the gods." Jason said as he tried to wipe the thought of Nico from his mind, "If they marry their relatives I doubt they care about gender."

"True. But, I'm only 14. What are the other options?"

"This goddess could be your mother."

"I don't think so. My mother's been dead for years."

"Is that what they tell you?" Jason said, slightly amused.

"That's what my _father_ told me!" Zatanna almost shouted. She shouldn't be upset Jason doesn't know anything about what happened to her father.

"You know what," Jason said trying to calm her down, "How about you get this collar and cuffs off of me and we can talk about this at Camp Half-Blood."

"What?" she said.

"You can just get these-"

Zatanna shook her head, "I heard what you said, but I just can't break you out!"

"Yes you can. All you have to do is get the keys unlock my handcu-"

"That would be betraying my friends!"

"You're not betraying your friends, you're learning about your heritage." Jason said calmly.

"I can't just break you out Jason!" Zatanna said, annoyed.

The door to the interrogation room flew open suddenly. Kaldur walked in followed by none other than Perseus Jackson. He walked up to Jason and uncuffed him and removed his Inhibitor Collar.

Zatanna looked surprised, "Well, I guess we _can_ just break you out."

Jason smiled, "Percy, how did you-"

"I apologize, but we must leave immediately. No time for questions." Kaldur said quickly.

"Aqualad, wait!" Zatanna said.

"I am sorry Zatanna but it is my duty to my king to rescue-"

"No, I'm coming with you." Aqualad looked confused but let her follow him out of the door.

They crept through the Interrogation Hall as quietly as possible until they reached the entrance to the Mission Room. The Team stood in the middle of the training area observing several holographic screens and commenting on them. They were checking up with the Justice League, just as Kaldur told them.

"He is in our custody as we speak." Robin said to the hologram of Batman.

"Good work." That was the nicest compliment they could get out of the bat.

"Aqualad and Zatanna are interrogating them as we speak."

"Them?"

Robin scratched the back of his head, "Well, there was a minor set back. We took this other guy, Jason Grace, along with Jackson."

"Jason Grace." Batman said to himself, "I'll look into it. Keep me updated." Then he abruptly cut the message.

"That was very Batman-like." Wally said with a smile.

"No, that was… something was off." But Robin decided to shake the worry from his mind.

Back in the hallway the teens watched the others quietly.

"They just contacted Batman." Kaldur said, "We must act now."

"We need to get to the Zeta-Tubes in that room." Zatanna informed the demigods, "But we can't have it be serted?"

Jackson raised an eyebrow, "Serted?"

"It's like the opposite of _de_ serted."

"I may have dyslexia but I'm pretty sure that's not how words work."

Zatanna ignored him, "Have how to get in there Jason."

"We need a distraction." he whispered.

Kaldur took out his Water-Bearers, "Then a distraction we shall have." He aimed his weapon somewhere far down the other side of the hall. A high-pressure beam of water fired off and hit something at the end of the hall, that made a loud crashing sound. A thin layer of dust from the crash spread throughout the hall and into the Mission Room.

"What was that? What is _this_?" They heard Raquel scream.

"It's dust from an explosion." Robin said, "They escaped again."

"Don't worry we got it!" Just as he said that Wally ran out from the Mission Room, towards where the dust was coming from, away from them. Several others followed him down the hall.

"Some of them are still in there." Aqualad said.

"I've got this." Zatanna said as she stepped into the Mission Room

Robin, Artemis, and M'gann were the only ones in there. M'gann locked gazes with her and her eyes went wide. "Zatanna no-"

The sorceress didn't give her a chance to finish before she recited her spell. " _Epacse yam ew os peels!_ " Instantly they all crashed to the ground.

The three boys walked inside and looked at the bodies. "What did you-" Kaldur started.

"Just knocked them out. They're only asleep." Zatanna replied.

Jason raised an eyebrow at her. "You're a magician?"

"Yeah."

"Pretty good one too."

Zatanna smiled, "Yeah, I guess so."

The group stepped over the fallen bodies to get to the the Zeta-Tube. "Oh, I almost forgot." Percy said, "Jason this is Kaldur'ahm, Kaldur this is Jason Grace." The two boys shook hands.

Jason followed his example and started introducing his new friend. "Zatanna this is Percy Jackson. Percy this is Zatanna." Percy stuck out his hand but Zatanna ignored it.

She crossed her arms, "We don't time for introductions. What's the override code?"

Aqualad thought for a second after he brung up a holographic screen in front of the Tube, "Override H-O-J/Mount Justice, Aqualad B02."

The machine replied, "Access Denied."

Percy shrugged, "Well, at least we tried."

"Are we really giving up?" Zatanna asked looking at Percy.

"No, we're not." Jason said to her, "Aren't there other ways out of here?"

Aqualad smiled, "Yes, there are. It will be easiest to leave from the entrance that leads to the forest."

The teens started making there way to the exit when they heard someone scream. "Aqualad!" Superboy stood at the entrance to the Mission Room and he looked bewildered. There was a mix of anger and confusion on his face as he looked from the four of them to the three bodies on the floor. Wally and Raquel just arrived when Conner charged at them.

Zatanna tried to speak to him, "Superboy wait, can't we-" But Conner looked like he wasn't in the mood for talking. He smashed his fists against the floor in front of them, but the teens all backed away in time.

"You guys were the mole the _whole_ time!" he yelled at them.

Aqualad looked slightly offended, "No, this is not what this is about Conner. This is my duty to my king." He didn't take his eyes off of Conner as he took out his Water-Bearers.

This actually made Conner angrier and he lunged at Kaldur, "Your _king_ didn't make you betray us!"

Percy looked at the two, "Woah, that is so cool!"

Wally stood behind him and tapped his shoulder, "Wanna see something cooler." he said. When Percy looked behind himself there was no one there, but when he turned back he was met with the sight of Wally's feet. The speedster landed a clean blow to Percy's chest which sent him falling to the ground very ungracefully.

Percy rubbed his chest as he laid on the ground, "Okay, wow. That was rude."

"Are you done laying on the ground, Jackson." Jason yelled at the son of Poseidon as he banged his hands against the sphere surrounding him.

Zatanna came to Percy's rescue just as Kid Flash was going to land the finishing blow. " _Teef owt nwo ruoy revo llaf!_ " Wally then tripped over nothing and land as gracefully as Percy had on the ground face first.

As Zatanna help him up, Percy yelled at Jason who was still trapped in a bubble. "I don't think that's working."

"Thanks for the help!" he said back as he hit the hilt of his sword against the bubble one last time. He looked around for the source of the bubble and saw a girl in a jumpsuit floating in the air. His eyes crackled with electricity, but he realized that he couldn't shock her. It would probably kill her. Jason focused a vortex of wind around her that will hopefully just knock her off balance.

"Woah!" Raquel said as the wind pushed her harder than Jason had meant for it to. She screamed something a little stronger than 'woah' when she slammed against the wall. Raquel winced and slid against the wall and onto the ground.

The sphere dissipated around Jason and he winced at how hard she hit the wall. Zatanna looked at Raquel and glared at him. "I _really_ didn't mean for her to hit the wall that hard." he said to her.

Zatanna rolled her eyes, "Whatever. We've gotta help Kaldur."

The match between Aqualad and Superboy was pretty evenly matched. The only problem was Superboy was going all out and Aqualad seemed like he didn't want to hurt his friend.

As Zatanna ran to the Atlantean's aid the Zeta-Tube finally activated. She looked at the two demigods and was about to motion for them to go through when she realized that someone was coming out from the Tube.

"Recognized, Wonder Woman, 02. " Just as the machine said Wonder Woman entered the cave but there were several people behind her. All these people seemed to teenagers. Zatanna recognized four of the many teens present. One of them was Leo Valdez, the boy they picked up the first time. The other three were the ones who came to save Valdez and the girl that was with him. The were four others she didn't know. There was a small African-American girl with cinnamon-brown hair, a tanned girl with feathers braided into her hair, a blond boy with a bow over his shoulder, and a red-headed girl with paint splattered clothes. But there was one girl in the front that really caught Zatanna's attention, she was a tall blonde and had stormy grey eyes.

"It has already gotten way out of hand." said the girl with the purple cape. She was one of the people who came to rescue Valdez.

"Piper," the stormy-eyed girl said to the tan one, "Control the situation."

Piper looked at her and batted her eyelashes, "Control the situation…"

The other girl sighed, "Control the situation _please_."

"That's more like it." she replied. The tanned girl, Piper, turned towards them with a wide smile. "For those of you who are sleeping, passed out, or simply laying down please get up. It would be nice to sleep forever, but I'd hate it if you actually did. So please, _**get up**_." No one wasted any time. Robin, Artemis, and M'gann all got up as if the sleeping spell that had been cast on them had no effect. Wally and Raquel got up as if they suffered no injuries.

Robin rubbed his eyes and looked around, " _What is going on_?" he practically screamed.

"Wait a second." Piper said again. Her voice spread through the room, this time affecting Zatanna too. "Why are we so stressed? We should all calm down."

She walked around the room until she was in front of KF and Rocket. "Violence doesn't solve our problems. All violence does is make us unhappy."

Wally and Rocket repeated her sentence like mind controlled zombies, but for a second Wally snapped out of and gave Piper an odd look, "Hey, this is like the Jedi mind trick!"

Piper looked surprised but then she just smiled with more finesse, "This is not like the Jedi mind trick. You're just upset." And Wally repeated after her just like he should.

"Good, I think we're all really upset. Let's just _**calm down**_."

All of Zatanna's troubles seemed to melt from her body. For the first time since Zatara had been captured by Fate she felt truly serene. The effects of Piper's voice was visible in the faces of the others. Even Conner and Kaldur had stopped fighting and were staring at Piper as if they were in a trance, which they probably were.

The stormy-eyed girl stepped up in front of Wonder Woman and smiled, "Now that were all settled down we can talk."

-(Line Break)-

Her name was Annabeth. The girl with the stormy eyes and blonde hair was Annabeth Chase, she had introduced herself as such. All of the half-bloods introduced themselves, but the heroes wouldn't. It was quite a beautiful name, Zatanna had to admit. She also seemed to be dating Percy and greeted him with an angry yell while he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

Annabeth must have been a miracle worker because she somehow got them all sitting in a circle on the floor of the Mission Room. Wonder Woman sat at the head of the circle, of course. Zatanna noticed that several of her teammates looked like they wanted to say something that would interrupt the peace, but the calming spell, or whatever that was, was still on them. They just settled for making odd comments.

"So… why are we sitting on the floor?" Wally asked.

"This is the Circle of Peace. Where everyone must be calm." said Valdez. Or should she say Leo, since they were trying to be friends and all.

It was a very silent and very awkward. Zatanna decided she was going to clear away the silence. Conner seemed to have the same idea at the same time.

"This isn't what it looks like." she said just as Conner yelled, "You guys were the moles the entire time!"

"No this isn't what this is about!" Zatanna said, insulted.

Artemis stood up, "Not what it looks like? Not what it looks like! You literally attacked us!"

Zatanna stood too as she felt Piper's calming spell thing fade away, "But it wasn't because we were moles! We did it to _save_ them!"

"Save them from what?" Robin asked, "We're the good guys, if they were really any trouble you could've told us! Was breaking them out really the best option?"

This broke into a huge argument between the teammates. The demigods, Wonder Woman, and (surprisingly) Aqualad never joined in. They all yelled until their throats were sore and their faces were red. It felt like hours of just screaming, but it was probably just a few minutes.

"So much for the Circle of Peace." Leo said with a shrug.

They all seemed fine with screaming among each other but Conner kept glancing at Kaldur like he expected him to be apart of this. Conner slammed his hands on the table, " _What do you have to say for yourself_." It was more of an order than a question, but it made everyone quiet. They all stared at Kaldur and he said nothing for a while.

"I feel no need to justify what I did, because I feel like I did nothing wrong." Kaldur finally said, "I will never have any regret about it. The son of a god we Atlanteans worship was in trouble. I did what any Atlantean would have done. That is all."

The superheroes looked taken aback. The demigods looked impressed. But Kid Flash snorted. "You don't actually believe that he's the son of Poseidon. That's ridiculous, there's no such thing as gods." Just than there was a loud clap of thunder.

Zatanna almost laughed, "You shouldn't say that."

"You need to start believing." Annabeth said, "Kidnaping us is wandering into territory that mortals, like you, shouldn't be in."

Raquel raised a brow, "Mortals? Is that supposed to be an insult?"

Jason explained, "They're basically humans. Some humans can get involved in the godly world. Like if you have a demigod child or if you can see through the Mist, which hides monsters and other things from you."

"So what you're telling us is gods and monsters are real? Then why haven't I seen any of these 'monsters' wandering around." Robin asked.

"That is exactly what I'm talking about. Only a few mortals can see through the Mist, which is a magical substance that makes monsters, gods, and other mythical things into other things that mortals can comprehend." Jason explained it as slowly as he could, but it didn't seem to sink into the minds of the mortals. Zatanna understood very well, it was like a spell that covered the eyes of anyone who wouldn't be able to believe what they were seeing.

"So they're all there but we can't see them." Conner scoffed.

Kaldur sighed, "At least understand that we are not the mole. The breakout was sudden and we never planned in advance to do it. To be honest, I have never heard of all of this until now."

"Neither have I." Zatanna said. But the Team sat in silence, not saying if they believe them or not.

M'gann sighed too, "I believe you." Everyone turned to her, "About the not being the mole thing _and_ the gods thing. Besides, we're friends we need to have more faith in you." Slowly everyone followed her example and decided to put some belief in their friends' words.

"Plus you couldn't have made up the gods thing all by yourself." Wally said with a smile.

Percy spoke up, "But it isn't made up. We're all demigods, even Diana."

"Except me." the red-headed girl said.

"Yeah, except Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She's the Oracle."

"This is more than ridiculous." Wally said under his breath.

Percy furrowed his brow, "What else do we have to tell you! Jason can fly and literally make tornadoes with his mind!"

"We have metahumans that can do that."

"Piper just controlled you with her voice!"

"We have politicians that can do that!"

"Rachel could tell the future!" he said pointing to the red-headed girl.

"That's actually the reason why I'm here, this morning a woke up with this slip of paper under my pillow." she then pulled out a small, worn piece of yellowish paper.

"Did the tooth fairy leave it there for you." Wally muttered. Zatanna noticed he would of said something else if Reyna hadn't gave him the most terrifying glare she had ever seen.

"Ever since... certain events took place I've lost my ability to tell the future. But I've been hoping that the god of prophecies, Apollo, would find another way to send us the prophecies we needed. It seems like this yellow slip of paper is the answer." she continued.

Reyna stopped glaring at Wally and looked at Rachel, "But how do you know that it's meant to be told now?"

"I actually read it earlier, Apollo himself sent this to me and this seems like the perfect time to recite it."

Wally rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Why don't just read me my fortune already." Artemis responded by elbowing him.

Rachel Dare glared at him, it wasn't as scary as Reyna's but it still startled him. "Don't scoff at the gods or they'll show you just how powerful they can be." The tone she took sent shivers down Zatanna's back. It was less of a threat and more of a warning of what was to come.

Rachel stood and threw the piece of paper into the middle of the Peace Circle. It unfolded itself and shone brightly, blinding everyone in the room. Everyone except Rachel, who stood in front of the paper as if nothing had changed. Zatanna was surprised to also see Will Solace sitting up as well. Rachel stepped closer to the paper and began a to read a cryptic message from it:

" _To recover the jewel of the cursed regina_

 _Travel to the prophetic arena_

 _Find the serpentine chain in the land of the Roman_

 _Where a goddess will deliver her good omen_

 _The Big Three with mortals as company_

 _Will make half-bloods and mortals in harmony."_

Once she had finished she looked out at all the young heroes, "Please heed this prophecy as you would regard any warning." Her eyes glowed green for a second but as fast as they lit up the flame died out.

* * *

 **Sorry, I felt like this chapter so unnecessarily long. I was really hoping I would start the actual adventure this chapter too! I'm also sorry about Wonder Woman talking like zero times in this chapter, I couldn't really find a place to fit her in. I'm sorry about everything.**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up hopefully next week!**


	5. Friendly Teens and Cryptic Messages

**Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

 _I wish I never asked for my fortune_. Wally thought to himself as Rachel folded up the bright piece of paper. The demigods all had grave looks on their faces, it made them look older and tired. It was enough to make him wonder if what they were saying was true. And how did Rachel Elizabeth Dare get that piece of paper to glow so brightly? What kind of tech did she use?

"What she just said was our future?" Raquel asked.

Robin laughed, "It sounded more like a weird nursery rhyme to me."

"Our 'nursery rhymes' have led to some pretty catastrophic events in the past." Percy said. He looked at Annabeth for a second to make sure that he used catastrophic right and she gave him a thumbs ups.

Raquel crossed her arms, "I'm sorry but if your Oracle-fortune-maker-thing is gonna give me my fortune it should be much more specific."

"That's the thing about prophecies, or fortunes if that's what you want to call it, they are never any specifics." Jason said with a shrug.

Wonder Woman smiled at everyone. The smiled reminded Wally of Robin right before he pounced on his enemies. "Prophecies also mean a quest, hardships, and adventures. You should go on a quest to fulfill the prophecy! Just as demigods do."

No one looked enthusiastic to go on any quests or missions of any kind. Especially Wally, "If you guys go on these 'quests' all the time why do we have to come?"

"I don't think you heard your fortune that well, Wally." Zatanna said, "It said 'with mortals as company' and we're the mortals."

"It could be any 'mortal' and don't say my really name!"

"Rachel Dare waited to read the prophecy until we got here. Meaning that you must be the mortals in your fortune. We should know your real names if we're going to be travelling with you for Jupiter knows how long." Reyna said to Wally. He could tell that she didn't like him much.

"I don't see why it matters if we use our real names, anyhow. Zatanna and I have already shared ours." Aqualad told him.

Wally looked conflicted, "That's not the point! You're an Atlantean! And Zatanna's superhero name is her _actual_ name!"

"Shut up, Wally!" Artemis scolded him then she looked at the demigods with a smile, "I go by my superhero name too, Artemis. I'd trust anyone who has Wonder Woman vouching for them."

M'gann smiled, "You need to know how to be more accepting of another person's culture, Wally. I'm M'gann or Megan, which ever one seems more normal to you." she grabbed Superboy by his arm and pulled him forward, "And this is Conner! We don't know how long we're going to be on this mission either, so we might as well call each other by our names." Conner didn't look as eager as M'gann to accept the demigods but he held his tongue.

"We're not actually going on this mission, right?" Wally looked around. He met eyes with Raquel.

She sighed, "I'm Raquel. And I hope that your prophecies can tell me if I break a nail in the near future."

"Guys no! Batman will literally kill us! Robin, tell them!" Wally looked at his best friend for support.

"I can't give out my secret identity, so just call me Robin." he chuckled.

"You're my best friend, man! How could you betray me?"

"Seems like a good cause. Plus whenever something involves Percy, Batman gets all weird. I'm getting to the bottom of that. Whether or not he finds out."

Wonder Woman looked like she was happy that most of the young heroes had agreed to go on their first quest, "Don't worry about Batman, I'll make sure he doesn't know about this." She then exited the Mission Room to probably make a call to the Dark Knight himself.

Annabeth looked at the heroes, "I hope that you all realize that if you go on this quest you might not make it out. You'll face things you've never encountered before. You may determine if we're going to war or signing a peace treaty. Are you all really up for this?"

"The stakes are high but," Kaldur stuck out his hand, "We will be happy to help you and your people."

Annabeth took his hand and shook it. "I'm glad that we're all on the same page!"

"Wait a second, I'm not even in the same book as you guys!" Wally protested but Annabeth ignored him.

"There are things we still need to discuss. Like who else is going, where we're going, and what we're getting." Annabeth continued.

"Well 'the land of the Roman' is obviously Italy and _regina_ is the the latin word for queen." Jason said.

"So do you think we have to go to Italy?" Annabeth asked to anyone in general.

"But wouldn't we have to get past Heracles to get to Europe again?" Hazel asked in return.

"No I doubt that he'll bother us again."

"You guys met _Hercules_?" Robin asked with surprised.

"Yeah," Jason said bitterly, "But he was a huge jerk."

Piper mimicked his bitterness, "It would be too early if I never saw him again."

"I don't think that he'll be a problem, but do you think cursed queen's jewel is in Italy?" Annabeth asked again. Wally really wanted to know why they met Hercules and why he won't be a problem. We're all demigods mysterious?

Percy looked like he was thinking hard, "We should go to Thebes. The necklace is probably there."

"What does the jewel have to do with a necklace? Is it on a necklace?" Annabeth asked him.

"I think... the jewel of the cursed queen _might_ be the gem from the Necklace of Harmonia." he said hesitantly.

At first Annabeth looked like she was going to shoot him down, but then she looked impressed, "Nice job, I guess you're not that much of a Seaweed Brain! How'd you know?"

He spoke proudly this time. "In the myths they say that the necklace has a chain that looks like two snakes and a clasp that is their mouths put together or something like that. That reminded me of the serpentine chain line. It was passed down between the queens of Thebes and they all got cursed."

Wally, who had thought that Percy wasn't the brightest green crayon in the box, gave him a surprised look. "What really gave it away was the being in harmony line. Plus I did research on the three Theban plays by Sophocles as an extra credit project in drama class." he continued.

Annabeth patted Percy on the back, "Great now we know where we're going!"

"And what we're getting." Reyna added.

"But we still need some of us to go with them." Piper said, "The prophecy says, 'half-bloods and mortals in harmony.'"

"Oh yeah." Annabeth said as she crossed her arms, "Percy, Jason, Nico, you're going." she said quickly.

Percy cheered at the same time that Nico protested. "Why do I have to go?" This was the first thing that the almost dead looking kid said since he got here. Personally Wally didn't want him coming with them either, mostly because he still hadn't forgot about Nico tripping him.

"I thought you'd be much more willing to go than this." Annabeth said.

"I was willing to go when I thought I'd be kicking mortal ass!"

"C'mon Nico! It'll be like old times." Percy said.

Nico ignored Percy and looked at Will, "I thought you wanted to keep me in the infirmary for observation?"

"My dad's the god of prophecies so I can't really argue with one." Will said while he was trying to hold back a laugh.

Nico groaned and slowly sunk down to the floor and laid face first while making a continuous moaning sound. "At least you'll be able to kick monster ass." Annabeth said with a laugh. Wally gave her a surprised look, Annabeth didn't seem like a person who laughed a lot.

"Why us? Not that I'm against it," Jason said quickly afterwards, "I think it would be better if you went."

Nico raised his head, "It would be better if _you_ went and _I_ stayed."

Annabeth softly kicked Nico's side as his head went back down, "The prophecy said 'The Big Three' so I assumed that it was the children of the godly Big Three. Plus you guys are probably the most powerful demigods I know." Wally looked at the three. Nico was a really pale kid, who looked like he hadn't eaten in months, with a big mop a dark hair on his head. Percy looked like every high school skater boy but acted like a class clown, it was like a combination between the two. Jason looked like the football player who would stuff him lockers before he got his powers, but he had to admit he was considerably nicer than him. This trio _did not_ scream powerhouses of all of demigod kind.

"I'm flattered but I still don't want to go." Nico said in a muffled voice.

"Shut up Ghost King, you should enjoy your fresh air." Will said.

"You know what… I think Hazel should go too." Annabeth said as she tapped her chin.

"What?" the demigoddess questioned.

Percy put his arm around the small girl and smiled, "You're one of the Little Big Three which gives you permission to do pretty much anything. Including going on extremely dangerous adventures in with a bunch of strangers!"

Jason raised a brow, "Little Big Three? Is that what we're calling ourselves now?"

"It's cooler than anything you could up with, Grace."

Hazel still looked confused and anxious, but Frank (who was the huge asian guy Wally recalled turning into bees) put her smaller hand in his large one, "Don't worry, Hazel. You'll do great, we've been on harder quest than this." All of Hazel's anxiety melted off of her face and she smiled.

"It would be a good idea to Shadow Travel back to camp and pack for _at least_ a week." Annabeth said to the Little Big Three.

"Me and Will are gonna go back to camp too." Rachel Dare said, "There's no reason we need to stay."

"Speaking of camp, is Grover waiting back there for us?" Percy asked.

"I actually asked him to break the news to the campers." Annabeth answered.

Percy looked at her with surprise, "You told him to tell them I was kidnapped?"

"We couldn't keep it a secret forever. They had to know about our interactions with the Justice League sometime. Why not now?"

"It's gonna be mass panic, Annabeth."

"They'll be fine as soon as they see you."

"But Anna-"

"Nico, would you mind?" Nico then promptly picked himself off the ground and grabbed Percy by his shoulder. He proceeded to drag him away towards wall and walked right into its shadow, while Percy was still talking. Wally rubbed his eyes to make sure he really saw Nico drag Percy into a shadow. Believing what he was seeing wasn't that hard when he saw Hazel do the same thing with Jason, Will, and Rachel.

Right after they left Wonder Woman returned from her call with Batman. "What did he say?" Annabeth asked her.

"There has been little to no progress since they left yesterday. They'll be in Africa for at least another week."

"Just as I thought, we only have a week to get to Italy, Thebes, and back." Annabeth turned to face the Team, "On this quest you'll encounter things that usually only demigods or mortals with clear sight can see, assuming that none of you have clear sight." No one said anything, but Zatanna look conflicted for a second, so she continued, "So Leo and the children of Hecate, the goddess of Mist and magic, designed this for you."

Just as she said that Leo stepped up holding a pair of what looked like orange sunglasses. "These glasses will let you see through the Mist at the same level demigods do. We've been working on it since the last time we met, in case we became best buddies. But we haven't tested them out yet considering we don't know any mortals that don't have clear sight. So we're sorry if it explodes or something." Wally noticed that the whole Team didn't look like they wanted their faces exploded off, so they took a step back.

Leo looked at them, "Eenie meenie miney you!" Leo said as he pointed at Wally.

"Wait I don't think that-" he tried to protest but he was already pulled away from the Team.

"This is Reyna, you know Reyna." Leo said pointing to the scary girl that hated him, "She'll show you a weapon and you'll tell us what it is."

Reyna didn't miss a beat, after Leo finished explaining she pulled out something from behind her. Wally immediately jumped, "I-It's an assault rifle." Without a moment of hesitation she swung it at him. Wally was surprised and, for the first time in a long time, wasn't fast enough to dodge it. He expected a heavy and painful blow, but felt nothing.

Leo gave him the glasses and told him to put them on. At first Wally thought that there was nothing different but then he looked at Reyna and realized her rifle had turned into a beautiful golden sword. "Woah." he said. He alternated between taking off and putting on the glasses just to make sure what he was seeing was what he was _really_ seeing.

"That must be code for it works! We've made installable lenses and contacts too, if you're wondering." Leo said.

"So that'll help us see your gods and monsters the way you see them?" Robin asked. Annabeth only nodded and smiled.

"Speaking of technology," she said to the Boy Wonder, "Would you mind showing me the device you used to shut off Jason's powers."

"No problem." he said as he lead Annabeth out of the Mission Room. Leo looked like he wanted to follow them but stayed behind.

He smiled at them, "Okay who else wants to give it a try?" As his teammates tried the glasses one by one Wally realized that he could at least _try_ to believe what he was seeing.

-(Line Break)-

The whole Team was already suited up and ready to head out by the time the Little Big Three (was Wally really going to start calling them that?) had returned from their camp. They all had backpacks of varying sizes on their backs, Percy was dressed in in an orange shirt that said Camp Half-Blood and Jason and Hazel were dressed in a Purple shirt that said Camp Jupiter. Nico stuck to the same skull t-shirt he was wear when he got there.

"Now that we're all here you guys can get moving." Annabeth said as she checked the lenses on Wally's goggles one last time. He and Robin we're the only ones who had lenses installed in their already existent eyewear, Robin had somehow got the orange lenses under the whites of his domino mask. The rest of the Team was wearing contacts but they all had a pair of the regular orange sunglasses in case the lenses broke.

"How are we getting there anyway? Doubt that Festus can fit _all_ of us." Jason said.

"The same way you guys got in." Annabeth answered quickly as she gave Wally back his goggles.

Jason looked confused but M'gann cleared it up, "We're taking the Bio-Ship, which is the plane you guys came in on."

"A plane?" Percy said with a slightly panicked expression.

Annabeth waved him off, "You were fine when you came in, you'll be fine this time."

"But Zeus probably thought I was being flown to my death and let me live."

Jason put a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure you'll be fine, Jackson."

"Just make sure that your daddy doesn't shoot me out of the sky, Superman." Conner gave Percy a confused look then turned attention to Jason with the same expression. It was like he didn't like any references to Superman being made if they weren't about him or the actual Man of Steel.

"Sure thing, bro." Jason laughed.

"You guys can talk on the plane." Annabeth said, pushing them away from each other, "You need to get going."

The demigods started to load things into the ship and entering alongside the Team. Percy was one of the last ones to enter so Wally waited behind for him. "Hey, Percy." Wally felt awkward calling him anything other than Perseus or Jackson. The Team had been chasing him around for months it was odd that they were suddenly allies.

While Wally was awkward, Percy accepted him with opened arms. "Yeah." he said.

"Um… what ever happened to those guys in the plays? I mean the guys who had the necklace?" Wally asked.

Percy thought for a second then answered him, "Well, there was one queen who had it, Jocasta, and she married her son, who killed her husband, and had four kids with him. She ended up hanging herself after she found out and her son-slash-husband, Oedipus, stabbed himself in the eyes with pins from her dress. Then he was banished from his own kingdom and died, it was probably a slow and painful death, under a tree somewhere in Greece."

Wally stared blankly at Percy as he swung his bag over his shoulder and entered the Bio-Ship. Wally continued to stand there and stare into space. Percy stuck his head out of the ship, "Are you comin' in?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Wally stuttered for a second and just nodded. He walked slowly to the ship and sighed sadly. He didn't know if he was more scared or more excited to see all the new and terrifying ways he could die on the mission.

Or should he say quest.

* * *

 **It was really cool writing a chapter from Wally's point of view. I based this mainly on the part of his personality that is very hesitant to accept that not everything can be explained with science. I'm also hoping to make it seem like there is a close bond between him and Percy.**

 **Thank you for reading! Hopefully a new chapter will be up next week!**


	6. Useless Teens and Upset Goddesses

**I'm so sorry this is late! Sometimes I have the chapter all written out and edited but I just forget to post.**

 **This is a long one so enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

Out of everyone in the ship, Hazel was both the oldest and the youngest person. Sure Nico was her older brother _physically_ but according to Annabeth, Hazel was older than him by a few years. If age worked for superheroes the same way it did for regular people then she should also be the youngest person there.

She didn't know why she found comfort in this fact but it did make her feel better about being in a plane full of strangers that claimed that they worked for the Justice Society. They called it a different name but they were both so similar to each other, so there was no way that JLA wasn't the same superhero team that she grew up with. But it has been decades since she last checked in with them so a new name and members shouldn't be that surprising. Personally, Hazel was surprised that the Justice Society was still together. She used to love watching them on the television set as they made their speeches about saving the day and protecting America from war.

Hazel sighed. Thinking about the Justice Society made her feel an incredible wave of nostalgia. She was supposed to visit New Orleans this week with Nico but that trip most likely cancelled.

"What's with the long face?" Hazel jumped at the sound of a voice. Standing in front of her was the girl who was tried to help Percy and Jason escape, her name was Zatanna. She took a seat next to her on the floor of the ship. "Hazel, right?" she said as she stuck out a gloved hand for her to shake.

Hazel shook it warily and nodded. "This is my brother Nico." She pointed at Nico but noticed he had fallen asleep. It wasn't so odd seeing him sleep anywhere at anytime. After he came out of Tartarus it was hard for him to sleep without being plagued with nightmares. But since he decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood he had been sleeping quite often, it was as if he were trying to make up for weeks of lost sleep.

Zatanna looked between her and Nico. "He's your brother?"

Hazel sighed again. Kids at the camps were never skeptical of Nico being her brother because he was white and she was black, that was a common thing among half siblings. They were skeptical because Nico was so brooding and had a sad aura around him. They basically had completely different personalities, while most half siblings are very similar.

"He's technically he's my half brother, we share the same father." Hazel answered as politely as possible.

"So do you have a bunch of half siblings running around?"

"No, we're… different than most demigods." Hazel said hesitantly.

"Oh… okay." Zatanna said back to her. Hazel was surprised that she didn't press any more than that. Hazel looked at Jason and Percy who were talking to the other heroes who all avidly talked back. It was all a little too much for her to handle, suddenly trusting a bunch of people who had kidnapped her friends. That was one of the ways she was more like Nico, she held grudges. Even if it might not be as serious as the grudge Nico used to have against Percy.

Hazel looked back at Zatanna who just happened to be looking at her. They're eyes met, then she looked away. But Hazel continued to stare. Zatanna wasn't so overbearing or moody, she seemed like a nice person to be around.

"Our dad is Pluto. Well, Nico's dad is Hades. I'm Roman and he's Greek and so we have different versions of the same god as our father." she said kindly.

"Oh, so how's Pluto and Hades different than other gods?" Zatanna asked.

"It's not just us, actually, it's Jason and Percy's dads too. Jupiter and Poseidon and their counterparts. For the Greeks they made an oath not to have any children and Percy and Nico are products of that broken oath, so they're kind of a big deal."

Zatanna tapped her chin, "I think Jason mentioned that, but he said he wasn't apart of it."

Hazel nodded, "He isn't but Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus _and_ their counterparts are the most powerful gods so they're children are really power too."

"So you four are the strongest demigods?" Zatanna asked, looking impressed.

"Yeah, the boys are. I don't know about me."

Zatanna shrugged then laughed, "You shouldn't underestimate yourself."

Hazel smiled and was about to reply but the ship suddenly shook violently to the side. Zatanna grabbed her so she wouldn't slide down the ship and Hazel grabbed her still sleeping brother so he wouldn't do the same. M'gann straightened the ship and everyone caught their breath.

Percy stood and dusted himself off. "Looks like we're here."

-(Line Break)-

Thebes wasn't different from any other place she had seen in Italy before, there were a lot of ruins and moss growing all over the weathered marble. Cobblestone paths that were smooth from wear and tear over time. Hazel imagined that the modern city of Thebes was far off from here.

Hazel walked in between Jason and Percy with Robin following behind them. She didn't understand why Percy had insisted on bringing the boy along, she would've enjoyed the comfortable silence between the three of them more if a fourth person hadn't tagged along.

"So how much farther until we get to whatever jumped on our ship?" Robin asked.

Percy turned to look at him, "We'll cross paths with it any second."

"What exactly attacked us?" Jason asked, giving Percy a skeptical look.

"Hopefully, it's exactly what I think it is." Percy was being really cryptic about whatever monster he thought they were about to face. Hazel wasn't sure if Percy was just pretending he knew what attacked us or if he didn't want to tell them so he wouldn't be embarrassed if he were wrong.

"You shall not pass." a feminine voice said slowly but sharply. At first Hazel didn't know where it was coming from then she realized that she was staring at the woman, or should she say creature, the whole time. It was sitting so still the she thought it was just a statue, but it moved forward out of the shadows and into the open. The creature revealed its womanly facial features and leonine body.

"A Sphinx?" Robin questioned.

"A Sphinx!" Percy cheered as if to pat himself on the back.

"You shall not pass… unless you… answer my riddle." the Sphinx said even slower. She walked the the width of the path but never took her eyes off of any of them.

"Here it comes." Percy whispered excitedly to them. Hazel didn't know why he was so excited to answer a riddle, but she just made the assumption the Percy somehow had the upperhand in this situation.

"There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she… in turn… gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?" The Sphinx said slowly.

Percy's face went slack. "Wait, what?"

"There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she… in turn… gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?" The Sphinx said again, "You have two minutes to answer."

"Wait, aren't you gonna ask me the capital of Arkansas or something?"

"You have two minutes to answer." she repeated.

Percy turned to the rest of the teens, "Um… so this isn't going exactly as I planned."

"So you don't know the answer?" Hazel asked heatedly.

"I thought it was gonna ask me mental math questions and stuff like that! Maybe the Sphinx in Thebes is more traditional than the one in the Labyrinth."

"I've heard the riddle before but I don't know the answer. I thought that the Sphinx was supposed to ask the four leg, two leg, three leg riddle?" Jason said.

Percy waved him off, "The last Sphinx said that everyone knew the answer to that so she doesn't ask it anymore."

"What happens if we don't answer it right?" Hazel asked.

"I will strangle you… and eat your innards." The Sphinx answered.

"What'll happen if we just don't answer it at all?" Robin asked the Sphinx.

"I will strangle you… and eat your innards." she repeated.

"Okay, wow. That's good to know."

"C'mon, we have to come up with something." Percy said.

"You have one minute left." The Sphinx said, urging them on.

The demigods gave each other panicked looks and began discussing the answer. Hazel almost suggested calling Annabeth, but realized that would waste too much time. The two boys swapped answers while Hazel felt like she had nothing good to contribute. Finally, with what seemed like two seconds to spare Percy turned dramatically to the Sphinx with his answer.

"We have our answer!" he said triumphantly, "The egg and the chicken!" When Hazel looked at the Sphinx she was surprised to see her as still as a statute with Robin leaning against her.

"That's a really creative but the actually answer was day and night." he said chuckling.

Percy's smile deflated then blew up again, "I knew you had a good head on hose shoulders!" he said while giving the Boy Wonder a pat on the back.

Hazel felt her shoulders slump. She was happy that they somehow got themselves out of getting their innards eaten but she was upset that the mortal boy had been more helpful than she had been.

"How'd you know that anyway?" Jason asked as they made their way back to the Bio-Ship.

"I'm actually a huge Greek mythology nerd. The riddle she asked was ultra rare and barely talked about in the myths." Robin answered nonchalantly. "I'm just glad that the ruins weren't serted, if I got the answer wrong the Sphinx could've done some serious damage." Hazel didn't know if serted was some kind of modern day slang or something but she didn't really care at that moment.

The walk back to the ship she kept silent.

-(Line Break)-

"What exactly are we looking for?" Wally asked as he pressed his face against the window of the Bio-Ship.

"Anything that looks weird. Or really shiny." Percy said.

"Thanks for the specifics." Conner said under his breath, but Hazel heard. She had realized during her time on this ship the Conner was not a nice person, and she often found herself frowning at him. He was probably the only person who wasn't nice, even Artemis was a little harsh but not unkind.

It was kind of funny considering that he and M'gann seemed to be in a relationship. M'gann was probably the most friendly person Hazel had ever met, maybe a little overbearing, but still extremely nice. While Conner barely spoke and seemed to be very aloof. Much like her own brother, who continued to sleep.

"Hey, Nico." she said as she tapped him. Nico groan and slowly opened his eyes.

"Rise and shine sleepy head." Jason said sweetly. He leaned over Hazel and Nico blocking the ship's lights. When he moved away Nico covered his face as if the light was blinding.

"Glad you're awake. Now help us look for the shiny thing." Percy said while never moving his face from the window. "Hey, M'gann do you think we could fly a little lower?"

"Roger that!" she said cheerfully. Hazel couldn't feel it but she knew the ship was lowered even more, she was afraid that it would start scraping against some of the columns. Her shipmates all agreed that it would be easier finding the Necklace of Harmonia if they looked for it from a bird's eye view. So far no one saw anything out of the ordinary. Hazel tried sensing the necklace but she didn't really know what she was looking for. She tried feeling for something with a lot of magical power like Imperial Gold but nothing jumped out.

Nico got up groggily and stood at the window in a free spot next to Wally, who jumped upon realizing that the Ghost King was standing so close to him.

Raquel moved away from her window and sighed, "Maybe I should fly out there and-"

"There it is!" Zatanna said excitedly. Almost immediately everyone raced to where Zatanna was standing, even M'gann who stopped the ship to see the necklace. Hazel and Nico stayed in the back with Kaldur to avoid getting trampled, though. Conner stood back too, but it was probably because he didn't care much.

"Well it isn't the necklace but I think it's a person." Zatanna said, "And this area isn't open to tourists at any time of the day so…"

"It might be a god." Percy said to Jason.

He nodded in agreement, "There's only one way to find out."

Jason asked M'gann to land the ship so they could all investigate. Once they landed Jason asked who was coming.

"If that's really a god out there, then there is no way I'm missing this!" Kid Flash said. Robin nodded in agreement and high-fived him.

"I'm good with going." Zatanna said as she took a step closer to Hazel.

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Might as well come too." But it was obvious she was hiding excitement.

"The rest of us will stay behind," Kaldur said, "We'll have the Bio-Ship ready in case we need to make a quick escape."

"I'll just stay back here with my buddies Nico and Kaldur." Percy put his arm around both boys. Nico looked annoyed with the sudden physical contact while Aqualad just shrugged.

Now that it was settled Jason led KF, Robin, Artemis, Zatanna, and Hazel out of the Bio-Ship and towards the god. As they got closer to the god all Hazel could hear was gross sobbing.

"A snake! Why a snake of all things?" A woman wailed. Upon climbing the last step Hazel recognized that the woman crying was obviously a goddess. Even while crying she was strikingly beautiful. She had black curls as dark as night framing her face, her had olive skin that looked smooth in her pure white tunic. She sat on the a broken column as she sobbed through her dark eyes, everything around her looked uglier compared to her beauty.

"Um… excuse me, My Lady." Jason said hesitantly.

Suddenly the goddess stopped sobbing and looked between Hazel and him. "Romans?" she said with a confused expression before being engulfed by a bright light. Thankfully they all looked away in time. Once the light vanished the same goddess sat on the column but she looked drastically different. Her skin was pale but her cheeks were rosy. Her dark hair turned a light brown and straight and was topped with a flower crown. Her blue eyes weren't sobbing and she looked happily at all the teens.

"What is it that desire young demigods? Oh! And mortals! I have never seen some this close." the goddess said.

"Um… so what is it we're looking at?" Wally as he stared intensely at the goddess.

"Put on your goggles, stupid." Artemis whispered angrily at him. Wally donned his goggles and his eyes went wide. "Well, hello there."

"Hello to you too, young mortal." the goddess said kindly. Hazel liked this goddess, she wasn't mean or self-centered like most gods. She had a very calming aura around her.

"Lady…" Jason started.

"Concordia." the goddess helped.

Jason looked surprised, "Yes, Lady Concordia. We've come to ask for your help."

"What is it that you wish for?" she said sweetly.

"Do you know where we might find the Necklace of Harmonia?"

"Harmonia?" Concordia said, "Well, then you'll have to talk to _her_." Just as she said that another bright light engulfed her and Harmonia sat in her spot, still crying.

"Oh, boy." Robin said under his breath.

"Why would you want to know where that cursed necklace is anyway." she said in between sobs.

"We kind of need it so would you mind giving it to us." Artemis said. Hazel gave her a warning look, that was not the way that you talked to a goddess.

Harmonia glared at her, "Too bad I don't have it." she took out a handkerchief and blew her nose into it.

"It's your necklace but you don't know where it is." Robin gave her a confused look. "How are you even here, I thought you got turned into a snake with your husband, Cadmus?"

"Are all mortals this rude?" She said through clenched teeth, "For your information I did get turned into a snake but I'm an immortal, who wants to be a snake for eternity?" There's the conceited and obnoxious goddess Hazel was looking for.

"You don't have the necklace?" Jason asked, getting the rest of them back on subject.

"Of course I don't! That stupid necklace cursed me and hundreds of my descendants! That's the reason my beloved got turned into a slithering serpent!"

"I'm sorry to hear about that but do you kno-"

"Oh and I grieved!" Harmonia said, interrupting Jason, "I grieved hoping that the gods would turn him back to the handsome king he was. But _noooo_ , instead they turn _me,_ a godling, into a snake as well! Because 'of course that would make Harmy ecstatic to be snake with her husband' that makes perfect sense!" she screamed then began sobbing again.

The mortals exchanged looks between each other and Jason looked Hazel for a little help. "Um, Lady Harmonia?" Hazel uncertainly.

"What else do you want? You just want to find this necklace so you can curse me again!" she blew her nose into her handkerchief dramatically.

A lightbulb appeared above Hazel's head, "Don't misunderstand our intentions, My Lady. We don't want to use the necklace against you, we want to use it against one of… um… your enemies! Yes, your enemies!" she looked at Jason.

He agreed with her and bowed to the goddess, "In honor of you we wish to use the necklace against…"

"Hephaestus!" Harmonia said sitting up.

"Hephaestus, of course!" Hazel and Jason said in unison.

"That crippled simpleton always wants to get back at mother for being with my father. This is a great chance to impress her!" she said excitedly. "But what would you get out of it?"

"Um we actually are doing it to… please you." The goddess didn't seem to believe Hazel, "To please you because… we have one of your descendants who is still suffering from the curse!" Hazel grabbed Zatanna and pushed her forward.

"Yeah, I'm your… great-great-great-great-great granddaughter three times removed." Zatanna said through a false smile.

Harmonia looked her up and down, "So you really wish to curse Hephaestus and his children as much as I do?"

Zatanna bowed, "Of course I do! It's been my lifelong dream!"

Harmonia smiled smugly, "Well, it must be true. You obviously got your startlingly good looks from me." Zatanna gave the goddess a nervous smile.

"So will you tell us where your necklace is?" Jason asked carefully.

Harmonia shrugged, "Yeah, sure." Hazel fought the urge to jump up and down. "But I should tell you the chain and jewel aren't in the same place." Hazel's shoulders slumped.

"The jewel is in Delphi, hopefully you'll find it easily." Harmonia said offhandedly. "And the chain is in Italy somewhere."

"That's all you're giving us!" Artemis said angrily, "We wasted so much time here and all that's all you're giving us! You could at least tell us where in Italy it is!"

Harmonia gave her a blank stare for a minute then pointed one finger at her with the same expression and she disappeared. Zatanna let out a terrified scream and searched frantically for her friend. Hazel looked up only to find Artemis panicking as she tried to hang onto the edge of a particularly tall column. With her free hand she tried to reach for an arrow but realized her quiver and bow were both on the ground. Artemis's hand went up and grabbed the edge of the column but as soon as she tried to lift herself up the edge crumbled.

Artemis screamed as she fell to the ground. Zatanna looked more terrified than Artemis herself and the boys watched in horror. Hazel made eye contact with Jason just as he sprang into action. Hazel swore that this was the fastest she had ever seen him fly, he jetted up into the air and easily caught the archer. Jason gently floated back to the ground and let Artemis down, she took a second to steady herself against him.

"Yay, you're alive." Harmonia said unenthusiastically. Artemis looked like she wanted to say something but she knew better this time and shut her mouth.

"Anyway," the goddess continued, "Good luck on destroying Hephaestus's life. Hopefully we'll meet again." On that note she disappeared from her broken column.

-(Line Break)-

"Delphi, huh?" Percy said as they all discussed what they found out outside of the ship. "I guess that makes sense since we've gotta go to the ' _prophetic arena_ '."

"But the prophecy also say we have to go to Italy." Jason added.

"Maybe we should split up." Hazel suggested. "Nico and I will go to Italy. We'll get done faster this way too."

Zatanna stepped forward, "I'll go too. The prophecy says that mortals and half-bloods should work together." Hazel smiled, if anyone was to go with them she was glad it was Zatanna, instead of someone like Conner.

"That sounds like a good idea." Kaldur said while he rubbed his chin. "Superboy, you'll go too. They'll need the muscle." Conner's eyes widened and he looked intensely at Aqualad, as if staring at him would change his mind.

"What?" Hazel would have never known she said that out loud in she didn't get funny looks from everyone. "I mean…"

Percy, of course, comes to her rescue, "We don't have much time, you guys literally have to check _all_ of Italy."

Hazel sighed and accepted that this wasn't going to be a good quest, "Good luck you guys." she hugged both Percy and Jason.

Kaldur patted Conner on the shoulder and smiled, completely ignoring the glare he was getting. Artemis and Zatanna hugged, "Be careful." the archer whispered to her, which was one of her rare kindnesses.

Wally waved at them before entering the ship, "Have fun in Italy! Remember to bring back a souvenir!" Robin waved at Zatanna too, but only smiled. Before Hazel knew it the Bio-Ship was gone and so were two of her friends.

"You know, they could've at least dropped us off in Italy." Zatanna said as the ship disappeared. "How are we going to get there?" she looked at Conner, who just shrugged.

Hazel locked eyes with her brother, he shook his head at her. But she nodded at him and he shook his head again. She gave him a blinding smile and Nico sighed in defeat.

"Follow me," he gestured at the two heroes, "I have an idea."

* * *

 **You guys can't already tell I'm planning on making this story based around Percy, Kaldur, Hazel, and Zatanna. But I really feel like it should be based around Hazel and Zatanna's friendship. But I also really want Percy kicking serious butt in this too. What you guys think? Like, honestly what do you think?**

 **Thank you for reading! Hopefully a new chapter will be up next week!**


	7. Falling Teens and Terrible Haikus

**I'm sorry if the time in here is weird. I tried not to make time too specific because it'll get confusing. So the only thing I'm specifying is the whether it's night or day. Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

Percy didn't know if spraying the window with water would make a rainbow, but this time he got lucky. He threw a drachma into the multi-colored window and it sunk in.

"Woah." Wally said in awe behind him. Percy could hear the crunch of the Chicken Whizzies he was eating.

Percy smiled at him, "I know right."

"So you just speak into it and you can talk to anyone?" Wally asked.

"Yup, no signal required. But first you've gotta say: 'Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering.' Then you say a name or a place, like Annabeth Chase."

Annabeth's scowling face appeared on the window. "What's wrong?"

"Does everytime I call you have to mean something's wrong?" Percy asked. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him.

"Okay fine, we had to leave Nico, Hazel, Superboy, and Zatanna in Thebes." he said as fast as he possibly could.

Truth be told, Annabeth wasn't that angry, in fact she was pretty calm. "It makes sense, you'll get the job done faster by splitting up."

"Cool," Percy said as he let out a sigh of relief. Believe it or not, Percy doesn't enjoy getting Annabeth upset, he values her happiness. Percy looked into Annabeth's eyes and realized that there were bags under them and they were bloodshot. "Hey, what time is it there?"

Annabeth yawned, "Late. We're still at their HQ. We stayed behind to do some research on the League, King Orin and Diana are here with us."

"What kind of research?" Wally asked, standing next to Percy so they were both in Annabeth's view.

"Nothing too intense. Leo and I are working more on figuring out these Inhibitor Collars. Reyna and Frank are checking out the JLA, since they know literally nothing about it. We can't go into a meeting blind."

"What meeting?" Robin popped out of nowhere, startling both Percy and Wally.

Annabeth didn't look phased, "I think the Necklace of Harmonia might work as something like an olive branch."

"Just because you give them a peace treaty doesn't mean they'll automatically _not_ hate you." Wally said.

"Plus the necklace is cursed, like, it's responsible for a lot of deaths. I don't it will give us any good luck." Percy added.

"That's why you've got to get it uncursed." Annabeth said, "We hope that it'll create a magical aura of harmony and peace, so that when we talk to them they won't try to kill us."

"Um, how do we do that?" Robin asked.

"According to the prophecy the other guys are supposed to meet a goddess in Italy. Maybe if they ask really, _really_ nicely they'll do you a solid."

Percy frowned, "Thanks Annie, that really helps."

"Your welcome." she smiled. Her smiled slipped when there was a loud crash behind her. "No Leo! I told you not cut the green wire! I'll call you guys later. _Leo no_!" Just as she said that the IM cut off.

"We should probably call the others and tell them what's going on." Percy said to the heroes as he took another drachma out of his pocket..

"I'll handle this one." Robin said, taking the golden coin from his hand, "This Iris Message thing is kinda cool."

"Go for it man. They probably aren't out of Greece yet so don't give them a hard time." he said to the younger boy as he grabbed the same spray bottle Percy used on the window.

"You know, we could've at least dropped them off in Italy." Wally said.

Percy shrugged, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure they'll figure out. They need to learn how to be independent anyway." In reality Percy had completely forgot the Italy was actually that far away. Percy realized that he was getting really forgetful lately, but with all that's been going on it's okay to forget sometimes.

Artemis took a seat next to Percy and KF on the floor of the ship. After stealing some of Wally's Chicken Whizzies she asked him a question. "I know your dad is Poseidon, but who's Annabeth's parent?"

"Annabeth is the daughter of Athena." Percy answered, "The goddess of war."

"And wisdom." Robin added as he sat down too.

"That explains why she's so…" Wally trailed off.

Jason interrupted his own conversation with Aqualad to tell Wally the word he was looking for was terrifying. "Hey," Percy said, "That's my girlfriend you're talking about."

"What about the other two?" Raquel asked, "Reyna and Frank."

"Ar- Mars and Bellona. Who are also gods of wars." Percy said.

"Great, we have three children of war gods trying to make peace." Raquel said.

Wally popped another Chicken Whizzie into his mouth, "Oh, the irony."

"We'll be landing soon." M'gann said cheerily from the front of the ship.

Percy sighed and hoped that they wouldn't meet any war gods in Delphi.

-(Line Break)-

The Bio-Ship was parked right outside of some ruins, everyone got off the ship since they put it in stealth mode. The ruins were similar to the ones in Thebes, the only difference was the giant amphitheater.

"Woah." It was the only thing that Wally could say as he looked down on what might have been a beautiful sight in its prime.

"What was that?" Artemis's face contorted into an expression of disgust.

"What was what?" M'gann asked her.

"Everyone shut up for a second." Artemis whispered. Once there was silence, Percy could hear it. It was like a never ending roar-like moan. Like a lion that was in extreme pain.

Wally raised his eyebrows, "What the heck is that?"

"That," Kaldur said pointing to the amphitheater, "Is what's making the sound."

"I don't see anything." Wally said, squinting his eyes. Artemis rolled her own and pointed at his goggles. He put them on and stared at the same spot, "Oh wait, I see it now."

Percy looked to where he was pointing and noticed that there was someone at the bottom. "Well, I guess we should check it out."

Jason smiled then chuckled, "Hopefully this won't be your first monster." No one shared Jason's amusement, but followed him down the amphitheater anyway.

Percy was more that surprised to see a familiar face when they got to the bottom. "Lord Apollo?" The sun god sat on the floor playing an odd-looking instrument that Percy vaguely remembered. "Um… Lord Apollo." Still, the god didn't answer. He just looked sadly at his instrument before taking another large breath so he could blow into it again. Percy spoke more firmly this time, "Fred."

Apollo looked up with a startled expression, "Oh, it's you Percy. You must've gotten the prophecy."

Jason and Percy looked at each other, Apollo just proved that he really did send the prophecy, "No offense Lord Apollo, but what are you doing here?" Jason asked.

Apollo put down his odd instrument and stood. "I've been temporarily exiled by my father. Sometimes, Zeus can be a real pain the-" There was a loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning, probably a warning from the king of the gods himself.

"Funny that you're here Lord Apollo," Percy said to him, "We're actually looking for something, maybe you can help us."

Apollo looked behind Percy and Jason, then looked back at them. He waved for them to come closer and whispered, "I would help you guys out but those are not the kind of mortals I was expecting you to bring." he glanced back at the heroes, "One of them is _green_." Apollo must have been a terrible whisperer because M'gann blushed and changed her skin tone so she looked caucasian.

Jason looked like he was going to laugh, "It's fine, they're cool."

Apollo shrugged, "Whatever you say. So I imagine you're here for the jewel" Percy nodded, he wasn't surprised that Apollo already knew their intentions.

"Follow me I'll show you right to it." Apollo said. Percy and Jason exchanged looks of excitement, Apollo was going to show them right to the gem. But what would be the cost? Gods never do anything for free, no matter how nice they are.

The sun god took about ten steps towards the center of the amphitheater before stopping. "Here it is." he said with a bright smile on his face. He pointed to the stone tile in the center of the bottom floor.

"Um… what's here, Lord Apollo?" Percy asked.

"The jewel! From the necklace. More specifically it's under here." His foot tapped the circular tile. "But I can't seem to get it open without the key."

Jason raised a brow, "The key?"

"Yes, the key! Don't you see that hole in the middle of the tile." Percy looked down the small hole, it was about the thickness of his index finger but endlessly deep. "I need the key to open it but it's in Dodona and I can't leave this place. That's why you're going to get it for me."

"We are?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, so I can get my- I mean, so you can get your jewel." the god said nervously. Percy narrowed his eyes. Apollo obviously has some ulterior motives.

"Okay that sounds good." Percy said suspiciously. "All we have to do is go to Dodona and get the key, right?"

Apollo looked excited, "Yes, that's all you have to do. But there's a catch."

"What kind of catch?"

"A few of you have to stay here." Apollo looked at the crowd of teens behind the two demigods. "You two and… you, come here." Robin and Kaldur moved towards the god followed by a hesitant Raquel. "Oh and Jason you should probably stay too."

Jason looked up at the god, "So what are we supposed to do?"

"I'll explain that later, as soon as the rest of you get going." he shooed the remaining teens, Percy, M'gann, Wally, and Artemis, away from the amphitheater. He even walked them up to the Bio-Ship. "Cool chariot." he said, knowing it was there without it being taken out of stealth mode.

"Shouldn't we leave them some supplies or something?" Percy asked him.

"I'll handle that, don't worry about it." the god said nonchalantly, "You should hurry along. The sooner I get my- I mean sooner you get that jewel the better, right?" Apollo then laughed anxiously, which made Percy narrow his eyes at him. What was the god really up to?

"Try to be back in… three days, maybe? I don't know, who cares. Just try not to die." he smiled and winked at them.

"Um… thanks?" Wally said uncertainly.

"No problem," he patted Wally on the back, "Maybe I should give you a good luck haiku?"

Percy tried to stop him, "There's no need for that-"

" _To retrieve a key_

 _Young heroes on a journey_

 _I am so cool._ "

"Thanks, Lord Apollo."

"No problem, Percy! Good luck." Apollo rushed them into the Bio-Ship and waved at them as they flew off.

The remaining four teens sat in silence for a few minutes before Wally broke it, "So… was it just me or did he use four syllables instead of five in the last line."

"No, h-he does that sometimes."

-(Line Break)-

"Where _is_ Dodona?" M'gann asked Percy.

"It's next to a small greek village, Dodoni, in Epris."

"Roger, that." M'gann said cheerily.

"Dodona is one of the three other Oracles that weren't Delphi." Percy said.

"There are more people like Rachel?" Wally asked.

"No, not anymore, Delphi got so popular that the other Oracles became outdated. But there used to be four in total: Phthiotis, Lebadeia, Dodona, and Delphi. Dondona was the second most popular Oracle right after Delphi."

"How do you know all of that?" Artemis asked.

"We have a class back in camp where we learned about all the old Oracles. It was usually taught by Will and the other children of Apollo, but Rachel helps out too."

"Will's dad is Apollo?" M'gann said, "I'm not that surprised, they look a lot alike."

"That also explains why he didn't freak out when Rachel opened up that prophecy thing." Wally said.

"I just assumed that he'd seen it before, but that makes more sense." Percy said, scratching his chin.

"Did Apollo send the prophecy himself so we could get whatever is under that tile?" he asked.

Percy thought for a second, "Seems like it. Whatever's under there must be a way for him to get off the island."

"I don't see why Apollo intentions matter so much," M'gann said, "When we get the key we'll have the jewel and Apollo will have whatever he wants."

Percy and Wally glanced at each other and the demigod gave him a shrug. Percy decided to listen to the martian girl and not worry too much about what Apollo is up to. Who knows, maybe if they get the key to him in record time they'll get a reward. For the rest of the trip they ceased speaking of Apollo all together. Percy instead helped direct M'gann to Dodona by using landmarks.

When the ship landed the sun was already setting. The ruins of Dodona seemed identical to those in Delphi in the light of the setting sun, "Do you think it's safe to be out here at this time?" Wally asked.

Percy laughed, "What? Are you scared?"

"No! Of course not! I'm never scared!"

Artemis brushed past him on her way down to the amphitheater, "Big words from a small man." M'gann just laughed and followed her friend down to the arena.

The teens spread out and searched the ruins. Finding nothing but cobwebs, crumbling ruins, and the occasional rabid squirrel. They met back up in the middle of the amphitheater. "So none of us found anything?" Percy asked. Everyone shook their head.

Percy rubbed his face and sighed. M'gann touched his shoulder, seeing how tired he was. "We should get some rest and search again in the morning."

Wally yawned and started walking back towards the ship, "That's the best idea I've heard all day."

The rest of the teens started following him but Percy stopped for a second. He stared past the gathering of trees and saw what he thought was a temple. "Hey, guys, wait a second. There's something I want to check out." Wally made a frustrated sound but stayed in place with the girls.

Percy walked between the oak trees until he faced what looked like a temple. The temple's marble columns were wrapped in vines and what would have been pristine white was now a dirty grey. Percy uncapped Riptide and walked into the old temple, it was larger on the inside than he thought. The moonlight shone through the temple making it seem eerie. The light bounced directly off of something shiny and into Percy's eyes.

He walked towards the shiny object on the floor and picked it up out of the rubble and was surprised to see it was a lightning bolt. "Oh no, please don't let this be…" He moved the rocks away from the floor and revealed a nameplate with Zeus written in ancient Greek.

"Of course, out of all the gods Dodona's patron had to be you!" Percy yelled, hoping the god would and wouldn't hear him at the same time. He sighed and decided it would be best if he made his way back to the others. As soon as he took his first step forward his head collided with a cold hard object.

With his head spinning and the darkness Percy had a hard time clearly seeing what he crashed into. Once his vision cleared, Percy had barely stopped himself from screaming. Right in front of his face was a bronze statue of a snake four times the length of his body and twice his thickness. It looked so real and sinister, like it might come to life any second. Percy slowly reached out and touched it and immediately felt as if he did something wrong.

Percy slowly stepped back behind a pillar as the snake's scales gradually turned from a rusted bronze to a lively green. Starting at it's tail and moving up towards its face until it was completely green. Luckily the snake didn't see him, it looked around for what had awaken it but saw nothing and slithered out of the temple. Percy sighed in relief then suddenly realized that the snake leaving was just as bad as it eating him.

Running out from the temple, he made his way back to the amphitheater. The superheroes were still standing in the same places as they were when he left them. While hidden in the oak trees, Percy didn't see the snake anywhere in sight. Then something caught his sight, in the bushes right behind Wally something was a much brighter green than the rest of the leaves.

Percy broke through the trees, "Wally watch out!" Just as he said that the snake pounced. It was a good thing the Wally was one of the fastest people alive, he easily dodged the snake's attack. But he was so startled that he ran into Artemis, knocking her down. They both laid there trying to catch their breath for a second too long, enough time for the snake to launch another attack. Percy knew he wouldn't be fast enough to get there in time, but ran towards them anyway. M'gann, on the other hand, was already prepared. Just before the snake bit into her friends she telekinetically picked up and dropped a large boulder on the snake's head, crushing it with a nasty squish.

All the teens took a second to process what happened. "What the heck was that?" Wally screamed.

"I think it was a really big snake," Percy said with a laugh, "Nice job M'gann."

"It's no-" M'gann didn't get the chance to be humble because the tail of the snake smacked her out of the air.

"M'gann!" Artemis yelled. She tried to run over to her but the snake's body blocked her path. All of the demolished parts of the snake's head slowly began reattaching themselves to the its body.

Percy went around the large body of the snake and grabbed M'gann, who was starting to get her second wind. "We've got to go, now!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Wally said as he grabbed Artemis and ran over to the Bio-Ship.

Now that two of his friends were safe, Percy could focus on M'gann. "Sorry about your head but we've gotta get out of here."

"Understood." she said groggily as she tried to get up. The duo was now ready to move but it was too late, the serpent's head was now completely reattached and it was ready to attack. Knowing better than to attack with its head again, the serpent lifted its tail and slapped it against the ground near them, as if this was a warning smack. Percy didn't take that warning for granted and tried making his way towards the stairs that lead to the Bio-Ship, but the tail slapped down on the ground in front of him.

With the second slap cracks began appearing in the ground, Percy sucked his teeth in annoyance more than fear. "Can you fly?"

"If I try hard enough. But I don't know if I can carry you."

"That's fine just go back to the ship, start it up, and come and get me."

"But-"

"It's fine, just do it!" M'gann didn't try to argue anymore. She flew over the snake, high enough so it wouldn't reach her, and flew towards the Bio-Ship.

"Okay big guy, it's just you and me." The serpent accepted his challenge and pounced at him. Percy rolled to the side to avoid it's teeth, instead the fangs sunk into the ground making more cracks appear. The snake freed itself and smacked it's tail towards Percy one last time, the half-blood succeeded in rolling away.

But with this last attack the floor broke apart and started collapsing in on itself. Percy tried to regain his balance but slipped into the chasm. The fall was enough to remind him of something he was hoping that he would never have to relive, thankfully he hit something much faster than the last time. Sadly, it was the cold hard ground. The impact knocked the wind out of him and his consciousness started to fade as he heard something slither towards him.

-(Line Break)-

Percy blinked twice, trying to believe what he was seeing. The snake was no longer with him and he stood high above the ground and watched as Zatanna slowly tucked in her knees to her chest. She laid in fetal position on the muddy ground with Nico, who was also in curled up, not too far from her. Both looked to be in deep sleep, their chests were barely moving.

Percy could sense that something was horribly wrong and tried yell for them to wake up, but no sound came from his mouth. Just when he thought he'd be watching Zatanna and Nico die, three golden horses ran out from nowhere and made the situation worse. They walked after one another in a line and began surrounding the two teens in a circle.

The horses prance around the duo silently, they continuously got closer and closer to them. The closer they were the more compact Nico and Zatanna tried to make themselves. Nico slowly rolled over, still having his body in a tight ball, and out of his balled up fist fell three pomegranate seeds.

Nico and Zatanna continued fold in on themselves, more so than Percy thought could be humanly possible. But suddenly, Zatanna's body began to unravel and a shimmering aura of some unknown substance began to surround her. The tentacle-like branches reached out and touched Nico, making his body unravel as well. The substance reached as far as the horses and made them stop walking.

Just as things started looking up for the two teens a dark shadow loomed over them all, even Percy. The son of Poseidon tried to look above himself to see the castor of the silhouette but the scene changed abruptly.

This time he was at ground level and in at least a foot of water. The air was musty making it obvious that he was closed off from the outside, maybe underground. He was standing in front of three dark cave-like entrances and Zatanna and Hazel happened to be standing in front of him. The girls talked for a second, then hugged each other, and both went into a different cave.

Percy took a second to decide who to follow and chased after Zatanna. The magician walked for a bit the abruptly stopped and looked around nervously. Percy walked around her to see why she stopped but all he saw was the darkness of the cave. He tried to shake her awake but nothing affected her, she stood there in the same spot with a look of pure terror on her face.

The second time Percy tried to touch her, he was transported to another cave where the water was filled up to the top. Being the son of Poseidon he had no problem with breathing but he saw another body struggling in the water. To his surprise it was, Hazel. Her feet were sunken into the ground and her cinnamon brown hair was splayed around her head. Percy tried to reach out to her but couldn't move from the spot he stood in, he looked down at his feet and realized that he was stuck in the ground too.

He and Hazel tried to reach for each other but their arms wouldn't stretch any more. Just as Hazel's fingers touched his own she went limp, and her unmoving body was left to float in the water.

* * *

 **So I solved my problem, I needed to split Percy and Jason up too so there wouldn't be too much of Percy overshadowing him because I'm not a Jason hater. Now everyone's in three groups of four and can get equal attention.**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up hopefully next week!**


	8. Secretive Teens and Many References

**Um... long time no see? So sorry about the brief hiatus I had a lack of inspiration and an abundance of school work. I'll try updating sooner from now on.**

 **Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

Nico abruptly woke up from a dreamless sleep to screaming. He turned towards the back of the van to see Hazel breathing hard and sweating, probably waking up from a nightmare. Nico climbed out of the front seat and into the back, he put his hands on Hazel's shoulders and shook her.

"What's wrong what happened?" he asked her.

Hazel took a big gulp of air but continued to breathe hard, "Me and Percy. W-we were in the… the water! He- I didn't, no, I couldn't. And Zatanna she- Zatanna!" she looked around for the magician and saw she was awake and well.

"Zatanna is fine, just calm down and tell me what happened." Nico said slowly. Hazel took another big gulp of air and retold her dream. The dream itself wasn't so weird, all demigods had crazy nightmares with mysterious meanings that will eventually come true. But the way Hazel was describing her dream was as if she wasn't there at all.

Hazel noticed Nico's confused look and cleared it up immediately, "But it wasn't in my eyes, I was looking at everything through Percy's point of view." Nico's face contorted into another confused expression, Hazel sighed, "It was like I was Percy and I was watching myself drown, I know it's really weird."

"We'll talk about your dream later, the town's up ahead." Conner grumbled. Nico could tell from the annoyance in his voice he probably just woke up too.

Nico and Hazel exchanged a look then turned towards Conner and scowled. Hazel looked at Zatanna and she nodded in agreement with Conner. Hazel looked back at Nico and nodded, Nico didn't look at anyone, he just sighed and climbed back into the front seat. "Just a little bit farther Jules-Albert." All the zombie did was nod and continue driving.

When Zatanna and Conner realized that Nico's idea of how to get them to Italy was to steal a boat and have a zombie chauffeur drive them across the Adriatic Sea, he could understand why they were hesitant. But what Nico didn't understand was why Conner was being such a colossal asshole about it. Zatanna was much less annoying and just accepted the things she didn't understand, plus Hazel liked her so he is trying to like her too.

But Conner... Conner felt the need to point out how none of this made sense or if it was "just their Team they would probably have already finish this job" and so on and so on. Nico was really good at tuning him out, but Hazel seemed to get riled up at everything he said. If he hated the Superboy then Hazel loathed him.

"That's enough Jules, stop here." The black van stopped right outside of what looked like the town square. From what Nico could see, it was virtually empty since it was pretty early in the morning. Perfect settings for them.

"Okay, everyone out." The rest of the teens followed Nico and cleared out of the van, "Hazel, do the thing." he pointed at the van.

Hazel furrowed her eyebrows at her brother, "Do the thing…"

"Do the thing _please_." Nico sighed.

"That's better." Hazel snapped her fingers.

"Now that that's covered, I was thinking that we cou-"

"What did you do to it?" Zatanna asked looking from Hazel to the van.

"Nothing important." Conner muttered. Hazel 's eye twitched but she managed to ignored him. She turned to Zatanna and whispered something to her that made her giggle.

Nico cleared his throat, "As I was saying, we should split up and search the whole town. Maybe we'll find a clue or something to where the chain might be." Hazel and Zatanna looked at each other like classmates who just learned they could have partners in their next project. Being the great big brother he is, Nico decided to break that up. Immediately.

"Zatanna, you'll go with me and Superboy will go with Hazel." The girls instantly ceased their giggling and looked at him.

Hazel looked ready to argue with him but hesitated for a moment, Nico used that delay to his advantage. "Holy shit are those venti!" It was a really lame distraction but it worked. Hazel, Conner, and Zatanna looked in the direction that he was pointing in hoping to catch a glance of the monsters. While his sister's back was turned he grabbed Zatanna's arm and pull her away from Hazel and Conner.

Zatanna protested, "Hey shouldn't we-"

"Nope." Nico said, not even giving her a chance to finish her question.

"I don't see anything, Nico. Nico?" Hazel turned to see her brother dragging away Zatanna. "Nico di Angelo!" she screamed, just as they sunk into a shadow.

-(Line Break)-

"So, what was the point of all of that?" Zatanna asked still winded from her first shadow travel.

"To get away from my sister, of course." Nico said with a shrug.

"Then let's never do it again." she said, but Nico made no promises.

Nico and Zatanna walked through the small town square, there weren't many people around to ask questions and there weren't many buildings to look at. Nico silently wished that he had taken Hazel with him instead of Zatanna so she could check for any odd occurrences underground or something. Or maybe the chain was made of some special material that Hazel may be able to sense. But he also didn't want to make the assumption that Zatanna was _completely_ useless in this situation, in fact, he thought that there was something special about her. He didn't know if she was a demigod or not, but there was something about her that made Nico actually want to be partnered up with her.

Zatanna stopped walking, "This is pointless. Why don't we go search cities that actually have ties to Greek and Roman mythology, like Rome or something."

"You think I wanted to come here?" he asked her.

Zatanna got a confused look on her face. "Didn't you tell the zombie guy to take us to here?"

"Nope, all I told him to do is take the boat across the Adriatic Sea so we could get to Italy. There were a bunch of other places that would have been much easier to dock at but he choose this small town, Lecce." Nico said nonchalantly. His outward composure betrayed what he was actually thinking. What if a god was controlling Jules-Albert and made him stop at Lecce? Worst case-scenario: the god was Hephaestus and he heard them talk of using the Necklace of Harmonia against him and took the false threat seriously.

But Nico didn't say any of that, for the fear of scaring Zatanna. "I think that a god might have guided us here to help us find the chain. My guess is it's somewhere in this city." That was the best case-scenario and probably the most unlikely one. Nico knew from his experience that it was rare for a god to go out of their way to do something for a couple of lowly humans and heroic demigods.

Zatanna stood in place for a while. "So what you're saying is you think that a goddess-"

"Or god."

"Is helping us out." Zatanna stood there for a while longer, staring at her feet. At first Nico thought she was thinking this over or assessing the situation or something, but when he stepped closer he saw her lips moving silently. Was she talking to herself?

Suddenly Zatanna raised her head, "I've got it, let's go!" the magician grabbed Nico by the collar of his skull t-shirt. She continued to drag him into the empty streets of Lecce but Nico made no move to use his own legs. He primarily relied on Zatanna's strength to take him that far. Apparently Zatanna was done with his shit because she stopped pulling him and told him to get off of his sorry ass.

Of course that wasn't exactly what she said but it was close enough.

"I'm not moving until you tell me where we're going." Zatanna sighed and let go of his collar letting him fall to the ground, "Up to that church." Zatanna pointed to what might have been the biggest building in the small town. " _Basilica di Santa Croce_ , the Church-"

"Of the Holy Cross." Nico finished, "What's there that's so important that you literally dragged me here."

"Well… my gut tells me that we should be here for some reason. If my _gut_ could give me a hint as to what the reason is, it would be really helpful!" She said, looking up at the sky with an angry expression on her face. Her anger at the sky reminded Nico so much of a certain son of a sea god that he wondered if she was screaming at Zeus himself. Of course she wasn't screaming at her gut, because that would be ridiculous, Zatanna was talking to someone else.

Nico narrowed his eyes. Who was she talking to? Some demigods had their godly parents speak to them inside their heads, but he had never seen a demigod get mad at them. The only other person he's known to get upset about it is Frank, but he had two gods of war arguing in his head.

"You can yell at your gut later, let's go." Nico and Zatanna quickly made their way up to the church. Upon arrival Zatanna talked to herself one last time, to ask "her gut" if they were really at the right place. Nico ignored her self-debate and slowly opened the church's doors. The inside of the church had old marble pillars lining the walls and each pair of pillars held up its own arch. There were chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, each candle was lit giving the room an eerie kind of lighting. The pews reached from the doors all the way to the front of the church where the priest sat flipping through a Bible.

The duo walked down the aisle until they were in front of the altar with the bishop sitting off to the side. Nico looked at Zatanna to see what they were supposed to be doing. Most of what he knew about Catholicism had to do with how they handled their dead, which he realized was pretty unhelpful at the moment.

Zatanna went up to the bishop and said something in Italian quietly and quickly, Nico almost didn't catch it. Something about him confessing. Confessing about what?

And since when could Zatanna speak Italian?

"Nico," Zatanna said motioning towards the now standing bishop, "It's time to make your confessions." The fact that she purposely said all of this in Italian had Nico thinking about what she was planning. But he didn't argue, he followed the priest to the Confession Box and for a while he talked about a bunch of "bad" things he's done in his life. A lot of them were things he's actually done, but never realized were the wrong decisions to make. Being a demigod must have warped his morals a lot.

After ten minutes of confessing Zatanna sneezed obnoxiously loud, which must be the code for "I did whatever I needed to do." He uttered a small _grazie_ to the priest and exited the box to find Zatanna standing in the exact same spot as when he entered it. He looked around suspiciously but nothing changed from when he first went in the box.

" _Grazie_ " she said to the priest before they exited.

Once they were standing outside, Nico looked at Zatanna who had a smug smile on her face. "What was that all about? You kind of put me on the spot in there."

"I think you handled the pressure well."

"You think I handled the pressure well! What if I hadn't spoke Italian, we would've been screwed!" Nico said, slightly upset at Zatanna's impulsive actions.

"But I _knew_ you could speak Italian."

"How'd you figure that out?"

"You knew exactly what ' _Basilica di Santa Croce_ ' meant."

"That was one phrase!"

"A very complicated phrase! Plus your full name is Italian. I heard Hazel scream it back there so I kind of made the assumption that-"

"That doesn't explain how you speak Italian."

"My dad's Italian and he taught me a whole bunch of stuff before…" Zatanna trailed off.

Nico quickly changed the subject, sensing that her father was a something Zatanna wouldn't like to touch upon. "None of this explains what you did in the church."

Zatanna's smile returned to her face, she slowly reached into her jacket and pulled out a golden goblet. Nico stared at it for a while, "Zatanna, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?" he said deadpanning.

"Shut up," she said as she reached into it and pulled out a compass, "What's inside the goblet is what we really came here for." she tossed the goblet aside as if to prove her point.

"How'd you know that would be in the church?"

"I used to go to a Catholic school and this is a Roman Catholic church. There's this thing at church where you drink a little wine and everyone gets a little piece of-"

"No, Zatanna, I'm talking about the compass. How'd you know that the compass would be in the goblet?"

She smiled nervously, "Um… in Catholic school we learned that there is always a compass in the goblet." Nico was obviously not buying that bullshit so Zatanna tried to maneuver around his questions. "What's with all these questions, just trust me. There's no time to explain, let's get back to the van!" Zatanna tried to take a step forward but Nico blocked her path. "What are you doing? Aren't we pressed for time?"

"There's something you're not telling us. And I doubt that you've told your teammates either," Nico said firmly, "For me to trust you any further you have to tell me what's going on."

Zatanna's face suddenly became serious, "I… you're not going to believe."

"I've been through a lot, Zatanna, I doubt that there's anything you can say that I'll think is too unbelieve."

Zatanna still look really hesitant to tell him anything, so Nico decided to make her a promise. "How about this: you tell me your secret and I'll tell you one of mine. Deal?" Zatanna gave him an incredulous look but nodded in agreement.

"I'll tell you about it on our way back." she said quietly.

-(Line Break)-

"So how many people know?" Zatanna asked him.

Nico shrugged, "Just a handful of friends. I don't try to make it some big secret." Telling Zatanna his secret wasn't a big deal to Nico, in fact he didn't care if everyone knew. "But I don't go around telling everyone, either."

"What about..."

Nico didn't even have to hear the full question. "Yup, her too."

"Speaking of my sister." Nico said as he pointed at Hazel who was sitting by their black van. Conner stood, leaned against the side of the van not too far away from her, "Just ask her about what she did to the van earlier then tell her about the voice." After Nico confessed his own private affairs he made sure Zatanna told him about her own secret, which didn't come as a huge surprise him.

"Okay, but I don't know what the van has to do with the voice in my head."

"Just trust me on this one." Zatanna just nodded and looked over at Hazel.

The demigod saw them coming and walked right passed Zatanna and straight towards her brother. "Where have you been?" she yelled at him.

Of course Nico expected the smaller girl to snap at him, he did suddenly leave with her new bff without saying when they were getting back or where they were going. Plus he used shadow travel, which she and Will both call the "forbidden technique", without her permission. So Nico did the only thing he could do. Avert the attention away from himself. "Zatanna what was that?"

She looked bewildered, "I didn't say anything."

"No, I think you did. Zatanna has something really important to tell you, Hazel." he said as he pushed his sister towards the magician.

Hazel's expression changed to one of concern instead of anger, "What's wrong?"

"Well, um- I…" Zatanna began.

"I guess I'll leave you two lovebirds to talk things over." Nico said as he gave Hazel a pat on the back, before going inside of the van. While opening the passenger's door he happened to meet eyes with Conner, who immediately turned away. Nico couldn't help but wonder what it might have been like for Hazel to partner up with him for more than an hour.

Nico sat himself down in the passenger's seat and took out the compass that Zatanna stole from the church and examined it. It looked like any old fashioned compass but completely brand new, as if someone brought it from their local Walmart this morning. Was it a clue? Or was it enchanted in some way? If the goddess helping Zatanna was who he thought she was, the compass could have some mystical properties.

Nico decided that instead of staring at an old compass for twenty minutes straight, he was going to compare it to another one. Nico took out his own compass from his bag and held it right next to Zatanna's stolen one. He instantly noticed a difference. His compass pointed north but Zatanna's was pointing east.

What kind of compass doesn't point north?

And why east of all directions? What was in the east? Nico placed Zatanna's compass on the dashboard and just stared at it for a while. Then he turned towards Jules-Albert, "What do you say, Jules? Are you ready for another road trip?" The chauffeur responded with a very undead moan that must have been zombie for "anything you wish master."

Taking that as a yes, Nico rolled down his window and yelled at his companions, "Get in loser, we're going on a journey to the east."

* * *

 **I had a little trouble writing Nico's character, but I hope I didn't make him too OOC. Also I'm not a Conner hater I'm just trying to leave some room for character development.**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up hopefully earlier than 3 week from now!**


	9. Nervous Teens and Fluffy Beasts

**It's super early in the morning for me but I have a new chapter so I might as well post it now.**

 **Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

Jason Grace was trying really hard to keep all his friends from panicking. Well not _all_ his friends, it was really only Raquel.

"You don't need to freak out."

"But what does he plan on making us do?"

"Nothing _too_ dangerous." Of course what was dangerous to others were everyday occurrences for him. "It's Apollo, not Mars."

"What would've Mars done?"

"Kill us."

"The more and more you talk about the gods the less and less I trust them." Robin said.

Jason laughed, "I never said they were trustworthy."

"I don't mean to interrupt your conversation but," Kaldur pointed up at what he was staring at, "What's that?"

Raquel looked up too, "Do you think it's the Bio-Ship."

"Yup." Robin replied.

"Which is our only mode of transportation."

"Uh-huh."

"Leaving with our supplies?"

"Correct."

"And all our money?"

"You know it!" Robin answered positively. Raquel's shoulders slumped, but Robin gave her a pat on the back. "Don't worry it couldn't get any worse."

"I'm back!" Apollo said enthusiastically when he suddenly appeared behind Jason.

Raquel rubbed her face, "It just got worse."

" _Pretty girl is sad_

 _I don't know why_

 _Why are you upset?_ " the handsome god's terrible haiku was enough to heat Raquel's face up

so much the Jason could practically feel it radiating off of her.

Robin slowly counted all the syllables on his fingers. "Did he even try to make the second line seven syllables?" he asked Jason, who just shrugged.

"Follow me, your mission is this way." The god said as he walked behind a thick gathering of olive trees. Robin, Aqualad, and Jason all moved to follow him behind the trees. Raquel continued to stand in the same place, fixated on Apollo's words.

Jason walked back towards, "Hey Rocket!" He said while snapping in front of her face, which successfully jerked her awake.

"Wow," Raquel muttered, "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god."

"That's not what I meant."

-(Line Break)-

Apollo stood in front of the groups of teens, behind him was a large object covered with a grayish tarp. The other teens were trying to figure out what was under the tarp, while Jason was preoccupied with his own thoughts. Right now the group was split into three groups of four. Nico's group was somewhere in Italy looking for the chain, Percy's group was in Dodona looking for Apollo's key-thing, and he was here doing Jupiter-knows-what. Hopefully their task wouldn't scar the mortals for life. The godly world was a scary one and some _demigods_ couldn't live through it. Jason strongly doubted that their mortal minds would be able to comprehend some of the terrors they were going to see.

Jason looked up at Apollo who was making large gestures towards the large tarp. "And this will be your ride!" Apollo abruptly pulled the tarp off revealing a bright red car, specifically a convertible. Since Jason hadn't been listening to a word of what the god was saying had no idea where they needed a ride to.

Raquel gasped, "That's a 1965 Mustang Convertible!" she approached the car and touched its hood. "And in mint condition!"

"Looks like someone know's their cars." Apollo's smiled was as brilliant as the sun itself.

"How far will we have to go?" Kaldur questioned.

"Wait a second," Jason interjected, "Where are we going?"

Apollo ignored Jason and instead answered Kaldur's question, "All the way to the top. Try not to stop 'til you get there!"

"To be honest, that doesn't sound so hard." Robin said.

Jason continued to be confused, "What isn't hard? What's going on?"

Apollo ignored the son of Jupiter a second time, "You shouldn't say things like that, you might jinx yourself." The god laughed and motioned the teens towards the convertible. "You should hurry along, we don't want to waste anymore time." The teens piled into the car. Raquel was at the wheel and Jason in the passenger's seat, Aqualad and Robin sat comfortably in the back.

"What's this?" Robin asked as he lifted a stereotypically wrapped present. The wrapping paper was dark blue and there was a bright yellow bow to tie it off.

"That's the package obviously," Apollo handed Robin a large duffle bag, "Everything you need is in this bag, as long as you have this bag it should be smooth sailing from the moment you hit the mountain. Now off you go!"

"The mountain?" Jason exclaimed, "What mountain?" Of course, Jason's question was never answered because Raquel had already started driving off. "Do you even know how to drive?" he asked her.

"I've got my permit."

"That doesn't count!"

"Why does it matter anyway? It's not like this is a normal car."

Jason was confused again, "What do you mean by this isn't a normal car?"

"Were you listening at _all_ Jason?" Just as Robin said this the car took off of the ground and flew high into the sky. "This is Apollo's flying-chariot-car-thing."

"Woah!" Jason gripped the dashboard in an attempt to not fall out of the car.

"That's what you get for not wearing a seatbelt." Robin chastised him.

"Raquel!" Jason screamed over the roar of the wind, "Do you know how to drive a flying car?"

"I fly on a daily basis!" Raquel screamed back to him, "Plus I watched Harry and Ron do it in the one movie."

"That doesn't count!"

"And that didn't end well for them either, did it?" Robin added.

Jason couldn't believe that these two mortals were completely calm at the concept that a god had a flying car the he uses to pull the sun over the earth. Never again would he question their ability to comprehend what the demigods see everyday.

Jason looked back at Kaldur who had a passive, almost blank, expression on his face. "What do you think about this?" he asked him.

The Atlantean shrugged, "I am not against it but I don't support it."

"I'm glad that we all know where we stand on the issue of Rocket driving a flying car, but shouldn't we be worrying about the wall of rock that we're quickly approaching." Robin pointed to the "wall of rock", which was actually just the mountain side.

"Rocket!" Jason screamed again.

"I've got it! Don't worry!" This only made Jason worry more. Raquel made a sharp turn to the right which caused the car to make a dive equally as sharp as the turn. "Whoops, wrong side." she promptly turned the wheel to the left and the car rose abruptly into the air at an almost vertical slope. While all the boys screamed bloody murder, Raquel led the car over a cliff and onto a paved road.

There was a minute of heavy breathing and calm, before Robin interrupted the silence with laughter, "Was I the only one feeling the aster?"

Raquel laughed and high-fived him. Jason took a deep breath, "No more flying, we'll be driving _normally_ from now on."

"Agreed." Kaldur said in a breathless voice.

-(Line Break)-

Raquel drove on the meandering roads so quickly Jason thought he might have hard attack. He and Robin had switched places, so he was now in the back with Kaldur while Robin sat in shotgun hooting and hollering as Raquel made sharp turns.

"So we have to take this package," Jason held up the dark blue present, "To the top of Mount Parnassus?"

The Atlantean nodded, "Yes that is the mountain we are on right now. But Lord Apollo said it won't be as easy as we expect it to be."

"That's what I thought. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems with us."

"The present is supposed to be a sacrifice to the god Zeus."

"Really?" Jason said, slightly surprised, "You'd think that Apollo would hate Zeus after he banished him to Delphi."

"I was thinking about that as well. But I suspect that whatever that key will open will make Lord Zeus very angry."

Jason finished his thoughts, "So the present, or sacrifice, is a way to calm him before Apollo gets whatever is under his tile."

The Atlantean nodded again, "But what if Lord Zeus doesn't like the sacrifice? What will happen then?"

"Let's try not to think about that."

"Wait a second. _Stop_!" Robin screamed, making Jason and Kaldur's attention snap back to the front of the car as Raquel made an abrupt stop.

"What are those? Clouds?" Jason asked.

"Isn't it obvious, they're sheep! Just when I didn't think this place was serted." It was an odd answer but Robin wasn't wrong. There were a bunch of giant sheep coming out of a cave, crossing the street, and climbing down the side of the mountain to the next paved road below them. This wouldn't have matter at all but they happened to blocking the path in front of them.

"No problem, let's just wait for them to finish crossing." What Raquel said seemed like a good idea at the time, but ten minutes later waiting for them to finish crossing the road seemed impossible.

"How many sheep are in that cave?" Robin asked with more astonishment than annoyance.

"I think we should just scare them away." Jason said, "Maybe they'll stop walking and clear the path."

"Great idea Flyboy!" Robin said.

Jaso knitted his eyebrows together, "Flyboy?"

"We all have to have a superhero codenames, so you need one too!" Robin jumped out of the car and walked towards the sheep, "I would call you Superboy, but that's already taken!"

Robin walk towards the sheep and Jason realized that he was just as tall as them. That's… weird. Jason couldn't help but have an ominous feeling in the back of his mind, like Robin scaring these sheep was dangerous.

The Boy Wonder made large gestures and loud noises at the sheep but nothing happened. Jason couldn't help but feel relieved when the sheep had no reaction. "Maybe you should get back in the car, Robin." Jason said warily.

"What are you so freaked out about?" Raquel asked, but Jason just brushed it off as nothing.

"Don't worry I've got a new idea." Robin took something out of his belt and threw it at the sheep. It exploded with a pop similar to the sound of a firework but instead of colorful light smoke quickly spread around the sheep.

"See," Robin said, "No problem at- woah!" the boy's body abruptly pulled into the smoke behind him.

"Robin!" Jason screamed as he flew towards the huge clouds of the smoke. He stood where Robin had just been hoping the he would catch a glimpse of him.

Suddenly Robin came out of the smoke laughing to the point of tears, "I'm so sorry! But you were so freaked out earlier that I couldn't help myself."

Jason chuckled, "Very funny." But the Jason still felt the same foreboding feeling that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Let's go back to the car and wait for the smoke to clear." He tried to make Robin go back to the car in hope that this feeling would go away.

As they were walking to the car Raquel screamed, "Watch out!"

One of the giant sheep ran out of the smoke and jumped towards them. Jason grabbed Robin and flew up and out of the way. The sheep crashed ungracefully to the ground, leaving a crater where it landed. The sheep looked up at its prey and bared its sharp teeth.

"Well, I didn't expect that."

"I did," Jason said, "They're sheep from Polyphemus' island, they're so carnivorous that they put a lion to shame." The sheep jumped up almost as high as Jason was flying and snapped at his heels.

"Wow, I feel so safe up here in your arms." Robin said sarcastically.

"You know I could just drop you now and say you slipped. Don't push your luck"

"I'm pretty sure that this doesn't count as luck."

Jason flew over the car and carelessly dropped him inside. "Thanks." the Boy Wonder said as he straightened his mask.

"No problem. Give me my sword." Robin handed Jason his sword (hilt first, or course) and Jason broke into action. He flew high up so the sheep wouldn't be able to jump up and bite into him. Jason hovered behind the sheep, which seemed confused as to where he had gone. He raised his sword high up and it morphed into a spear. The spear crackled with lightning surrounding it, Jason took aim, and threw the spear directly at the sheep. It hit its mark and the sheep howled with pain before exploding into dust. The superheroes whooped and cheered from the car.

"Wait," Aqualad said while standing up, "It's not over." On cue, a bunch of sheep stampeded out of the smoke and towards the car. Kaldur jumped out of the car, took out his Water-Bearers, and created huge clubs out of them. Before the sheep could reach Raquel and Robin he smack them off the mountain. Jason landed on the ground and turned his spear back into a sword and joined Kaldur.

They pushed the sheep back towards the smoke but it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold them there. "We can't hold them back much longer!" Jason yelled over the growls of the sheep.

Jason next stab towards the sheep hit something much more solid than the wool of a carnivorous beast. The herd of sheep still snarled at him but between them was barrier, Jason looked behind himself and saw that Raquel put up some kind of shield.

"We need to go. _Now_." Kaldur said.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Robin picked up the duffle bag and Zeus' gift and jumped out of the flying car.

"But where are we supposed to go?" Raquel asked, "We can't go back down, we have to finish our mission."

"We'll go the only place we can," Jason looked at the next ledge above them, "Up." Jason willed the wind to pick Kaldur and himself up. Kaldur was obviously caught off guard by the wind sweeping him off his feet but he quickly balanced himself. Jason laughed, "You're a quick learner." The wind carried them up to the road above them and placed them down gently.

Jason was going to go back down and grab Robin, but the boy's grappling gun attached to the railing and pulled him up. Robin landed will a graceful aerial somersault right next to Jason. "What," Robin said seeing the demigod's surprised look, "Not all of us have superpowers."

Raquel slowly flew up while keeping the shield up with the utmost concentration. Once she landed on the road she released the shield and the sheep swarmed the car smelling that their prey had previously been there.

"Great job Raquel." Jason said while giving her a pat on the back, "How'd you keep the shield up for that long?"

"It feeds off the kinetic energy. The more they crashed against it the stronger it got." Raquel smiled, "And thanks."

"Well there goes our ride." Robin said as he looked down on at the sheep covered car. "This kind of makes me hope that Mount Parnassus isn't as serted as I thought."

"Doubt that these will be the first magical beast we face." Kaldur said.

"If it isn't, I'm not too worried." Jason looked at the superheroes, "You guys handled your first monsters really well."

"Will they all be like that?" Raquel asked.

"Not necessarily. Some are mindless demigod eaters, like the sheep, but some are… smarter than that."

Robin looked confused, "What do you mean by smarter?"

Jason chuckled humorlessly, "Some monsters can lure you into traps or kill you slowly." his expression became dark, "Cyclops can mimicked voices, emposai can charmspeak you into doing anything they want, some gods seem like they're borderline monster when they-" Jason felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked from Raquel's hand to her worried expression. "Sorry," he said trying (and probably failing) to smile, "That's not important right now. Let's find a place to rest."

-(Line Break)-

The teens walked for a long while before they found a large cave on the mountainside to rest in. Kaldur sat down as soon as they got inside.

"Aqualad, are you okay?" Jason asked.

"I'm fine. It's just that," Kaldur let out a small puff of air, "It was hot outside and Atlanteans aren't used to that kind of temperature."

"I'll just get you some water from the bag." Robin said opening up the duffle bag. "Holy mountainside, Batman!"

Raquel raised an eyebrow, "What did you just say?"

"Sorry force of habit." Robin said looking into the bag, "There's nothing in here but gardening tools!"

Jason stood by Robin to confirm what he said. It was true, there was nothing in the bag but shovels, spades, and a couple pairs of gloves. "Why would he give us gardening tools instead of actual supplies?"

Jason shrugged, "That's the god of prophecies for you. You think he's saying one thing but he really means another."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Raquel asked, "Starve to death! _We_ can last for a while but I don't know about Aqualad."

"I'll be fine." The Atlantean protested.

"You know what, this is a cave. We can probably find some water somewhere in here." Jason said, "Raquel you watch Kaldur. Robin and I are going to look for water." No one objected since it was the only good idea they had, so Robin and Jason set out in search for water.

There had been about five minutes of awkward silence and walking before Robin asked the million-dollar question. "So why can't you just make it rain on Aqualad?"

"What?" Jason asked.

"You should've just made it rain on Aqualad. You're the son of Jupiter who is the god of lightning which indirectly makes him the god of thunderstorms. Since you can control lightning can't you make a huge storm or something."

Jason contemplated between hitting Robin upside his and actually answering his question. He chose the less violent approach. "I'm only good at the lightning and thunder part. Percy's the one that can make it rain."

"Cool!" Robin said ecstatically. "Have you guys ever teamed up to make a level 40 combo attack."

"What?" Jason said, completely caught off guard by that question.

"You know, a combo attack. It does 20,000 hp damage." Jason's confused expression didn't change. "You know MythoMagic." Robin pulled out a large deck of card.

"Oh my gods, why is everyone into that game?" Jason said rubbing his face.

"You know more people that are into MythoMagic! I only meet other Mythos at the tournaments."

"What in Pluto's names is a Mythos?" Jason wished he hadn't asked any questions at all.

"That's what we call ourselves! I only meet other Mythos at the MythoMagica tournament they hold every year, sometimes it gets _so_ serted. The highest I've ever gone in the tournament is sixth place, I won a medal and everything!" Robin then proceeded to talk endlessly about MythoMagic. Jason didn't have the heart to tell him to shut up, he was so excited to talk to someone about it.

"And then I used Pan's Call of the Wild and won that round. The next guy was really hard to beat. He had a level-"

"Do you hear that?" Jason asked hushing him.

"Hear what?"

"Listen closely." There was the echoing sound of pattering and the air was become humid.

"It's water!" they said in unison and ran forward. Not too far ahead of them was a small pond with crystal clear water. Jason took out an empty bottle and filled it with the water.

"Look," Robin said, pointing to a weird looking tree right next to the pond, "There's fruit on here!" The fruit was oddly shaped but closely resemble a purple-ish pear.

"Robin, I wouldn't eat that if I were-" But the Boy Wonder had already taken a bite.

"It's fine! It taste just like a pear, you want some?" Robin picked several off the tree and offered one to Jason.

"No thanks, let's just get back to Kaldur and Raquel." The walk back was relatively silent as Robin was finishing up the purple pear he took a bite out of. When they got back to the mouth of the cave Aqualad was sleeping and Raquel was standing near him.

"Thank goodness you guys are back. The sun's setting but Kal- _Aqualad_ past out a while back." Jason could see that Raquel was very worried for Kaldur despite the calm facade she was putting up.

"Good thing we found a pond." Jason handed the bottle to Raquel who dipped the water down Kaldur's throat. She put the back of her hand against his forehead. "He's cooling down, he should be fine." she said with a smile.

"That's great! Once he wakes up he can eat this awesome fruit we found." Robin handed one to Raquel, "You should try one Rocket!"

"I am _not_ eating some nasty fruit you found in the back of a cave!" she said pushing the fruit back.

"Suit yourself." Robin said as he took another bite out of his fruit.

Jason sighed and looked at the starry sky. "Now is a good time to get some rest. Robin how about you take the first watch?"

"Roger that captain!"

"I'm so happy you said because I have been dying to get some shut-eye all day." Raquel yawned, "G'night guys." She walked to the other side of the side took off her jacket and used it as a pillow. Before you knew you could hear her soft breathing.

Jason didn't waste anytime either and found the softest bit of rock in the cave to lay down on. Gradually, everything around him got dark and he faded into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

 **I had _a lot_ of trouble writing Aqualad's character and I think Jason might be a little OOC, so sorry. Next chapter will be on Percy's group and they're doing right now.**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up hopefully in less than 2 weeks!**


	10. Running Teens and Giant Reptiles

**Sorry about the extremely late update, enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

M'gann knows she's a lot of things. She's a martian, she's a superhero, and she's a cheerleader. One thing she is _not_ , is a doctor. So why is trying to figure out what's wrong with Percy her job?

M'gann made the assumption that he had hit his head when he fell one hundred feet underground. Their first instinct was to go down there and save Percy ( _and_ see if he was alive). Percy survived the fall, but once Artemis, Kid Flash, and M'gann got to him, there was no way out from the underground with the gigantic snake blocking the way they came in.

M'gann tried several times to crush it with boulders, but all it did was give them a little time to escape. For reasons she didn't understand the snake kept coming back to life no matter how many times she they killed it. And the more times she killed it the faster it was coming back.

Luckily, the snake was the only bad part of being stuck underground. They kept travelling deeper underground but the air stayed breathable and they had two full bags of supplies (one that Percy carried and the other was carried by Artemis). There was also a bright light at the end of the tunnel they were walking through. Basically this could be a lot worst, they could be suffocating in the dark while starving and running from a giant snake.

But they still had their problems, Percy was a big one. He was the most experienced in this kind of stuff but he was out of commission at the moment. Kid Flash tried calling for help but there was no signal in the underground tunnels.

"This isn't going to work." Wally said as he pulled his earpiece from his ear and examined it.

"You can say that again." Artemis said angrily. "What are we even doing?"

"Come on guys, I'm sure we'll find a way to…um…"

"Exactly, M'gann!" Artemis exclaimed, "We won't find way to do anything if we don't what we're actually doing!"

Wally put a hand on M'gann's shoulder, "I'm sorry to tell you this babycakes, but she's right. It's best if we go back the way we came and see if there's a different exit."

"Actually, _no_. It's _best_ if we stay in one place and try to figure out what's wrong with Percy."

"Of course, staying in one place so the giant man-eating snake can find us again!"

"It'd be easier to _kill_ the giant man-eating snake if we wake up Percy! And, I don't know, _maybe_ he'll know why it keeps finding us!"

Knowing that they would go back and forth for a while, M'gann took a seat on the ground, she gently laid Percy down too. Looking down at the demigod, she wondered what he would do in this situation. But M'gann knew she didn't really know Percy Jackson enough to answer this question. Yes they all read his file and they all wondered what the gaping holes in it could be filled with. In reality she had only known him for 2 days, but she felt like she could trust him. Plus he opened up to all of them much quicker than her own boyfriend did. She was surprised by how quickly he trusted them in turn.

M'gann suddenly sat up, "Hello, Megan! The bag!"

"What?" Artemis and Wally said in unison.

"The bag, of course." M'gann opened Percy's bag and rummaged through it, "Percy told me that there was something in his bag that healed demigods. He _trusted_ me to feed it to him if he got hurt."

"Oh, yeah!" Wally exclaimed, "What did he call it again? Amrosa, armosia, abrosa?"

"Ambrosia!" M'gann yelled as she pulled out the food of the gods. It was zipped up in a plastic baggie and "AMBROSIA" was blatantly labeled with a sharpie.

M'gann sat Percy up, with the help of Artemis, and force fed him a small piece. "I think I remember saying that if he ate too much he'd burn up and die. So it'd instantly kill one of us if we tried it."

"Wow, sounds delicious." Artemis said as she attempted to help Percy chew.

Upon swallowing Percy started to cough and stir. But before they could celebrate successfully reviving their friend, they heard a deafening crash behind them. Not surprisingly, the snake crashed through a self-made hole and slithered towards them.

Before anyone could react it sweeped it's tail towards them. Wally grabbed Artemis and Percy and moved them out of the way, but the tail caught M'gann in the back and slammed her into the wall. But M'gann stood right back up and recovered uncharacteristically quickly.

"Get Percy and Artemis and get out of here!" she screamed back at her friends. Kid Flash nodded at her, knowing what she was going to do. All she needed was a little space between them.

M'gann turned back towards the giant serpent as soon as her friends were out of sight. She looked right into the its beady yellow eyes. "Let's see what you've got." The snake opened its mouth, bared its fangs, and hissed as if to accept M'gann's challenge.

Floating a mere twenty feet from the snake, M'gann raised her hands and her eyes glowed a bright green. A loud rumble could be felt from all throughout the tunnels as M'gann summoned the full force of an avalanche upon it. Unfortunately, the martian girl was much too close to the serpent and started to have the rocks bare down on her as well.

Knowing that this was a good time to make her exit, M'gann navigated her way through the shower of boulders and flew as quickly as she could to find her friends.

-(Line Break)-

Kid Flash's bright yellow and red suit stuck out like a sore thumb in the muddy brown tunnels so it was easy to find them. M'gann landed next to the speedster but he said nothing to her.

She furrowed her brows and turned towards Artemis. "Artemis?" she said tapping her, but the archer continued to stare straight ahead. M'gann followed her gaze and upon realizing what she was looking at she too stood shellshocked. M'gann didn't know how she missed it when she first landed because it was as big as the serpent she'd just been fighting.

A gigantic light-up arrow was the only source of light in the tunnel, it continuously flickered a seemingly random moments. There were no wires or visible power so how the arrow was working was a mystery. But what was really perplexing were the symbols above it, which happened to be almost as long, and bright, as the arrow itself.

 **ἐνθάδε**

They meant nothing to her so the symbols were probably in a different language. "What does it mean?" M'gann asked her teammates.

"I don't know?" Wally answered, "But I think it's in Greek." Considering where they were at the moment this didn't come as a surprise.

"When Percy wakes up we can ask him." Artemis said, then took a seat near the sleeping demigod. "Which he should be doing soon. Let's just wait her."

Wally raised a brow. "Didn't we already discuss this?" By discuss he means argue.

"Discuss what?"

"That we can't just stay in one place! We've got to keep moving, every time we get too cozy the snake giant busts in!"

"That's the least of our troubles! What we really need to do is take care of Percy!"

"What _you_ need to do is-"

Deciding that this was a good time to step in, M'gann interjected, "That's enough, guys! What we _really_ need to do is call someone."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Artemis said, "All our comms are down."

"I think we should take the demigod approach on this." she said pointing at the light-up arrow. "We can Iris Message now that we have a light source. No signal required!"

No one disagreed since it was the best idea anyone had since they fell underground. So borrowing a drachma and a spray bottle from Percy, M'gann made the call the exact way Percy did.

"Wait, why are we calling Annabeth instead of the others?" Artemis asked.

"I don't know, I feel like Annabeth would be the best person to help us in this situation."

"I have no objection," Wally said, "I wouldn't mind seeing her beautiful face again."

"My beautiful _what_?" said Annabeth, who had appeared in the rainbow.

"Your, um- what I mean is… sorry?" Wally tripped over his words.

"Apology accepted." Annabeth smiled, "Now, what's the problem? And why is it so bright?"

"We're in front of this giant neon light-up arrow thing. That's how we're making this call right now. Oh! Wait a second!" M'gann picked up chunk of firm mud and wrote the symbols from the lights in it. "Do you know what this means?"

Annabeth squinted, "It's in ancient Greek and it means 'here' or something like 'in this place' if I'm not reading it backwards."

"If the giant cryptic writing says we should go someplace my suggestion is not go there." Artemis looked at Wally and smiled smugly.

"What else are we supposed to do? Wait here for the snake to eat us?" Wally said angrily.

M'gann turned towards her friends, "Guys, please!" she said, urging them stay quiet for once.

"What snake?" Annabeth raised a brow, "And since I'm already asking questions, where are you? And where is everyone else?" M'gann sighed but she briefly told Annabeth what had happened since their last Iris Message. "So you see our problem?"

"Yup, and it's one hell of a problem." Annabeth rubbed her chin, "It's more typical to find Jason falling asleep on the job."

"But will Percy be okay?" M'gann asked desperately.

"Of course he'll be fine, demigods are built better than mortals. Haven't you ever heard of Hercules?" Annabeth smiled, "But even if he's knocked out cold the snake's still going to follow a powerful demigod's scent."

"But how do we get rid of it?" Wally asked.

"First step to defeating an enemy is knowing what it is." Annabeth said as if this was a lesson she was teaching her students, "At first I thought it was a drakon, but I think it's the Python."

Artemis looked confused, "A python? If you're talking about a snake we already know that."

"No, I mean _the_ Python. The one Apollo slew when he first claimed Delphi as his own." No one in the tunnel knew anything about Greek mythology, but Annabeth kept going. "He must of come to Dodona because Apollo was in Delphi. And Dodona _was_ the second most important Oracle."

"That's cool and all but how do we kill it." Wally rushed.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and muttered mortals before addressing them in full volume. "Apollo killed it using an arrow so my suggestion is to-"

"Annabeth!" A voice screamed from inside of the Iris Message.

"Leo, what is?" Annabeth asked, turning her back towards M'gann and the rest.

"I figured it out! It's so simple!"

Annabeth was now excited too. "Holy Hera, you did it! Guys I'm gonna have to go, I'll call you later!"

"Annabeth, wait!" M'gann tried to stop her but she had already cut them off. "What was she going to say?"

"It's obvious!" Wally smiled. "We have to kill the Python!"

M'gann and Artemis just stared at him for a second and let what he said sink in.

"Are you crazy!" Artemis exclaimed, "Just a second ago weren't you saying we should try to find a way out instead confronting it?"

"I think that's a really bad idea Wally." M'gann said calmly.

"C'mon guys! Annabeth already told us what we have to do, all we need is an arrow." he said looking at Artemis.

"Oh no, I'm not!" Artemis said with a tone of finality in her voice, "There is no way I'm going to be responsible for killing that, that _thing_!"

"You're not going to be _responsible_ for killing it, I have a plan."

Those were probably the most terrifying thing M'gann had ever heard come from the speedster's mouth. But he seemed so confident, his "plan" couldn't be _that_ idiotic.

-(Line Break)-

M'gann was sad to say that she was completely wrong. This "plan" was the _most_ idiotic thing she had ever heard. But what was even more idiotic was the she and Artemis were actually doing it.

Percy was hanging dangerously in the air, suspended by a rope that was tied to a stalactite. He was still asleep but occasionally stirred like he was about to wake up. M'gann was kind of hoping that he wouldn't wake up anytime soon. Percy didn't seem like the kind of person that got angry at all, but she doubted that he would be able to hold his anger when he found out he was being used as bait.

"M'gann I'm sure he's fine!" Wally yelled up at her, "He survived a fall from a hundred plus feet, I'm positive that a thirty-feet drop won't do much."

M'gann ignored him and tightened the rope enough to make sure that there was no chance that it would slip, but not so tight that it would hurt his ribs.

The basics of Wally's plan were to draw the Python out with Percy's scent and Artemis would shoot it in the face with an arrow. Flawed was the only way to describe his plan, it was so flawed that it would take too long to list all of the flaws. Instead M'gann tried to see the good side of Wally's plan. So… they would see the Python and Artemis would get a chance to shoot it.

Yeah, that was about it.

M'gann flew down to meet Wally and Artemis, who was inspecting everyone of her arrows. "I only have two regular arrows, the rest are trick ones and I doubt they'll work on a monster snake."

"Two's enough, three's company anyway." Wally joked, "Is Percy ready?" M'gann nodded. "Great now all we have to do now is wait."

The three superheroes situated themselves so the Python wouldn't be able to see them and waited. M'gann continuously looked up at Percy in fear that he would fall, or worse. Wake up.

They didn't have to wait as nearly as long as M'gann thought they would. Minutes felt like hours in the tunnels, so it felt like five _hours_ before the Python showed up.

A familiar rumbling shook the tunnel and before they knew it the Python burst through the wall. It quickly slithered its way up to where Percy hung.

M'gann looked at Artemis and Wally looked at the Python with horrorstruck expressions. "Guys, on my mark we'll charge him." she commanded, snapping them back into reality.

The snake approached Percy almost cautiously, just to make sure no one was going to take away his prey at the last moment. The Python unhinged it's jaw when its head floated only a few feet from the demigod.

Wally started but M'gann held him back, "Not yet."

The Python's tongue slithered out of its mouth as smoothly as its own body and licked the side of Percy's face.

"Now, Artemis!" M'gann shouted.

Artemis spun out of their hiding place, notched her bow, and aimed in mere seconds. Without a moment of hesitation she let the arrow fly towards the snake. It was so silent in the cave you could hear the arrow cut through the air and miss its target by a hair.

M'gann realized that they lost the element of surprise and one of their best (and maybe only) chance of hitting the slithering reptile.

The plan wasn't a complete failure, though. They successfully caught the snake's attention and its eyes focused on them instead of their demigod friend.

"Scatter!" M'gann ordered. It was the only logical move she could think of, they'd be harder to hit if they split up.

The ex-sidekicks didn't need to be told twice, M'gann was already flying high into the air and Kid Flash grabbing Artemis and ran in the other direction. Good thing they moved just then or they would have been squashed flat by the tail that landed right where they were standing.

"KF, distract it so Artemis can get another shot! I'm going to untie Percy!" M'gann yelled orders like she was their leader. She kind of surprised herself with her sudden abilities to lead.

Not wanting to know how Wally was planning to distract a giant reptile, M'gann focused on freeing Percy, who was on the verge of waking up. She laid him down flat on a space that seemed to be out of the Python's reach and joined the battle.

Artemis was standing ready and Wally was running circles around the snake, literally. It tried to follow the speedster but he much too fast for even a monster's eyes.

"Right there Kid! Keep him there!" Artemis said. Wally immediately stopped and let the snake's eyes land on him, it hesitated in case his prey tried to run again. Artemis used this hesitation as an opening and let her arrow go. It flew through the air in a similar way the first arrow did, but there was no mistake, it was going to hit its target.

And it did.

Too bad it bounced right off of the Python's scales.

The Python now admired his new target, but left no opening for her to escape or attack. Its tail swung at Artemis at an alarming speed.

"Artemis!" Wally and M'gann screamed. But she was knocked flat to the ground and safely away from the snake's passing tail.

M'gann was happy, but confused. What saved Artemis from being squashed?

As the dust cleared M'gann could see a larger dark-haired figure lying on top of Artemis, shielding her. He stood up with an angry expression on his face. " _What in Hades' names are you doing!_ " he snapped.

"Percy!" M'gann said, "We thought we could stop it bu-"

" _Move_!" Percy said interrupting her. He yelled just in time for Wally and M'gann to dodge the Python's tail.

"Are you okay?" he asked Artemis in the most kind voice possible. She nodded and he helped her up. "That's great because we've got to get moving."

They started running back towards the light-up arrow when the Python made its second attack. It bared its fangs and lunged towards Percy and Artemis. "Keep going Artemis!" Percy shouted, "I'll handle this!"

Percy stopped running and faced it. The Python hissed and pounced on him head first as he pulled out a pen from his back pocket. To say M'gann wasn't expecting that would be an understatement. How was he going to stop the snake with a pen?

She shouldn't have doubted him so quickly.

As soon as he uncapped the pen it transform into a wicked double-edged bronze sword. The snake warily eyed the sword but kept coming towards him at full speed. Percy side-stepped the snake's attack last minute and stabbed it in the eye. It cried out and hissed, Percy took this moment of confusion to slice off one of its fangs. Percy caught it before it clattered to the ground.

The demigod looked up at M'gann who was still floating in the air in shock. "Isn't a good time it do that thing you do with the rocks?" he asked. M'gann nodded and picked up Kid Flash. She dropped him next to Percy and, before the Python could recover, she dropped an avalanche's worth of rocks on it.

Besides the occasional roll of a pebble, it was completely silent in the tunnel.

Percy sighed, "Now that that's all over, mind telling me what's going on?"

-(Line Break)-

"I can give you several reasons why that was terrible idea." Percy stated.

Percy, Wally, and M'gann met up with Artemis and were on their way to the light-up arrow. On the way they told Percy what happened after he fell underground.

"First of all," he said, "Annabeth never finished what she was saying, so how were you supposed to know that she wanted you to kill it?"

Artemis stepped in, "This was all Kid Stupid's idea."

Wally flushed, "Sorry, guys. I was so sure…" he trailed off.

"Don't sweat it! I respect the bravery." Percy gave him a pat on the back, "And M'gann according to what I've been hearing you did great today too! You should lead the group more often."

M'gann was surprised but she took the compliment with a smile.

"There it is!" Artemis exclaimed. She pointed towards the giant arrow, M'gann hadn't noticed they were nearing it.

Percy inspected it quickly but thoroughly. "Looks magical to me." he squinted at the words. "Well, I guess we'll go this way." he said pointing in the direction the arrow was facing and began.

"Wait, that's it?" Wally asked, "We're just going that way because the mysterious light-up sign says so?"

Percy smiled, "Yup!" The three Teammates exchanged looks, but decided to follow him.

They must have walked for half an hour before they started noticing something. Slowly the tunnels got smoother and lighter until the mud road turned into white tiles.

"What's that?" Artemis asked, peering at whatever was at the end of the tunnel.

Wally squinted, "You think that it's another arrow?"

"No, it's…" M'gann touched her temple, "I think there are _people_ there. Not people… no, it's different."

"Guys." Percy muttered, quieting all of them. They approached the end of the tunnel and saw that it was a door made of marble columns. They walked through it on high alert, ready in case there was a fight. As soon as they all made it over the threshold the door closed silently behind them.

"What the-" Percy's shouts were interrupted by the lights in the room suddenly turning on and a loud bang. M'gann thought it sounded like someone was nailing something into a wall.

The lights moved like stage lights, two rays focused on the four of them. M'gann covered her eyes from the blazing light, which was as hot as it was red.

The other two rays of light focused on something in front of them. M'gann regards the three feminine figures who were bathed in the white light. They stood on an elevated desk, like the one a judge would sit in. The dark-haired woman in the front smiled wickedly at them, in her hand was a gavel. She spoke melodiously.

"Court is now in session."

* * *

 **Sorry about the extreme lateness! I'm having a little bit of writer's block. But I won't just leave this story to rot no matter how long it takes me to update.**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up soon (hopefully)!**


	11. Missing Teens and Golden Horses

**Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

"I don't understand." Zatanna said, "So you think my mother is a goddess?"

Hazel was really hoping that she wouldn't ask that. "Sometimes that isn't the case. Sometimes… a god takes a liking to a mortal but dosen't make a move. They might become their patron."

"Like someone who watches over them?"

"Something like that. They're usually attracted to them for the same reason they're attracted to potential mates. The gods might even bless them with more skills."

"So Hecate might be like that for me?"

"Yes." Hazel preferred for her to think this way, she didn't want Zatanna to start making assumptions about who her mother is or was. Demigods tend to be disappointed when they realize the gods don't care for their kids as much as mortal parents do. Zatanna would be heartbroken if Hecate actually turned out to be her mother but hasn't made contact with her for 14 years.

"That might explain why you have such a high aptitude for magic." Hazel told her.

Zatanna flushed, "I'm not _that_ great at magic. My dad is _much_ better."

"Even if you're not that great now, you'll get better." Hazel took her hands, "I can _feel_ it."

Zatanna's eyebrows knitted together. "How can you…"

"We're here! Stop the car, Jules-Albert." Nico said from the front. "Everyone out."

Everyone followed Nico's orders and got out of the car. Hazel looked around at the town square they parked outside of. It wasn't that different from the one in Lecce just bigger and with more buildings.

"Did we pass the Parthenon before we got here?" Zatanna asked.

"Yeah," Nico said, "We're in Rome."

"Yay." Conner muttered.

Hazel looked at Nico. "The compass took us here?"

"Before it disappeared, yes."

There was silence.

"It what?" the girls exclaimed in unison.

Conner scoffed, "So the only reason we stopped here is because the compass is gone?"

Nico sneered at him, "What would you suggest? Keep going until we drive off the edge of the earth."

Conner looked like he was going to retort but Hazel stepped in. "The compass disappearing must mean we're wherever we need to be. Let's just look around. _Together_ this time." The two boys looked at each other, then back at her and nodded.

"Before we go out there I should probably change." Zatanna said, looking down at her superhero attire. Hazel couldn't help but agree.

" _Egnahc smrofinu otni ym sehtolc!_ " Her outfit instantly turned into normal clothes. "Okay, I'm ready."

This piazza was crowded with people since it was approaching the afternoon. Rome was the hub of all of Italy so it wasn't surprising seeing so many Italians walking around. Hazel was just surprised by how rapidly they were speaking their native language.

"What's that?" Zatanna asked as she pointed to something in the center of the town square. It looked like a statue to Hazel, but all she could see was the pointed top that peaked over the people's heads. And this was on her tiptoes.

Nico seemed to be having the same problem she was, he stood on his toes but looked just as confused as she did. "Is that an elephant?" Conner asked, seeing it clearly. At times like this Hazel envied tall people.

Nico started forward, "Let's check it out." Hazel made sure to follow Zatanna's bright purple top so she wouldn't get lost in the crowd.

Once the group reached the statue they were thoroughly disappointed, well, at least Hazel was. "What is this thing?" she asked.

"Isn't it obvious." A voice said from behind the statue, "It's _Elephant and Obelisk_. This is a beautiful work of art! Of course you demigods wouldn't understand." The voice came from a woman, who walked out into their view. She was dressed like she was going on a trip, she had a backpack and hiking boots tied tight. Her long brown hair complimented her gray eyes making her extremely attractive. But there was this power in her eyes that made her seem like she could decimate Superboy in an arm wrestling match.

"Welcome to Piazza della Minerva, demigods." she raised an eyebrow at Zatanna and Conner, "...and humans."

Nico sighed, "Let me guess, you're Minerva."

"Good guess, Nico di Angelo. I recognize you from the quest you took with the Roman praetor to retrieve my statue, you will always be in my good graces for that."

Hazel didn't blame Nico for being taken aback. It was odd for gods, even ones they've met before, to greet them with compliments and kindness.

Nico did a little bow and the rest of the group followed suit. "Thank you, Lady Minerva."

She nodded at them as a cue for them to stand, "What do you wish for?"

"How do you know we're-"

"Most demigods wouldn't dare come to these lands unless there is something important enough to bring them."

"You're right, as always, Lady Minerva. We came here looking for the chain from the Necklace of Harmonia."

"It's a good thing for you that I have it right here." She pointed at the obelisk that sat on top of the elephant's back. There was a chain that crowned the pyramid top of the sculpture.

Nico gasped, "Lady Minerva I don't know how to thank you!"

Minerva actually smiled, "I think I know a way you can thank me."

Of course, Hazel should've expected this. No matter how much a god likes you, you're not going to get something for free.

"What do we need to do." It was less of a question and more of a statement when Nico said it.

"Don't worry young ones. I won't be asking you to rob a bank."

-(Line Break)-

Hazel couldn't complain, they weren't _really_ robbing a bank. In fact, this was much _much_ worse than robbing a bank.

"Do you have eyes on the painting?" Nico asked her through the comm.

"Yup." Hazel answered.

"I can't believe you made them think that piece of wood was a _purse_." Zatanna said.

Conner took this chance to mutter, "This is such a stupid idea."

"Okay grab it."

"I can't just grab it, Nico!"

"Not with that attitude you can't."

Hazel groaned, this was such a mess. When Minerva said she wanted a famous painting from the Galleria Borghese Hazel almost passed out. But Nico was already thinking up a plan. She didn't name anything specific so Nico decided they were going to grab the painting he knew the most about. " _Amor Sacro e Amor Profano_ or _Sacred and Profane Love_ , whichever is more convenient for you." he said to them about ten minutes ago, when they stood outside the gallery.

Zatanna suggested using comms to talk to Nico, who would be staying outside during the mini-mission. At first he refused but Hazel convinced him that they weren't as bad as phones and Iris Message isn't portable, plus they could handle themselves in a fight if a monster showed up.

"If you see it then grab it." Nico insisted.

"I can't do that with all these people around." Hazel said, "Even if we use Mist wouldn't it be weird if three people who were standing right here suddenly disappeared along with priceless art."

"Fine then! Do whatever you want!." Nico turned silent.

Zatanna was still in awe, "They even _searched_ it. That is so weird, they searched a piece of wood. You just snapped and they-"

"Conner," Hazel said, "Cause a distraction."

"Like what?"

"Anything will work as long as you get all these people away from here."

Conner grumbled and walked out of the room into the hall where they kept the statutes. In a few minutes Hazel could hear gasps and screams from the other room, tourists and residents alike left the hall where _Sacred and Profane Love_ hung to see what was going on.

Hazel smiled, "Now Zatanna, I need you to take the painting off the wall, please."

Zatanna did what she was asked. "Woah this is heavier than I thought it would be."

"I'm not that surprised." The painting was around 4 feet tall and 9 feet wide. It was basically an oil painting of two women lounging on a stone sarcophagus with a baby sitting in between them. Don't get her wrong, as an artist Hazel found the painting absolutely breathtaking, unlike _Elephant and Obelisk_. But her mind was occupied with other thoughts.

"I need you to do something for me Zatanna," Hazel said as she put the wood on the wall in the spot where the painting used to be, "I need you to turned that piece of wood into the painting."

"You're kidding right?"

Hazel shook her head. "If Hecate is really your patron- or even your _mother_ , you should be able to do this."

Zatanna suddenly looked very serious. Hazel had no idea why she thought this was the right time to test Zatanna's Mist abilities, but she had this feeling in her stomach that it was now or never.

"Take out your contacts and focus on that piece of wood." Hazel dictated, "What does it look like?"

Zatanna squinted, "It's… a purse?"

"No, look closer. _Focus_."

Zatanna squinted. Then it was like something clicked. She blinked twice and her eyes opened wide. "It's the wood. How?"

Hazel ignored her questions. "Focus on the wood again. _Sacred and Profane Love_ is supposed to be up there, that's what everyone is expecting to see when they come here. Think about what _they_ want the wood to be?"

Zatanna stared intently at the wood until it slowly started morphing into something else. "That's right, keep going."

Hazel could hear the noise outside the hall quieting down. "We need to hurry Zatanna."

The magician breathed in and out slowly. Hazel looked at her then back at the wood that was now transformed into the painting.

"Nico, we need to get out of here!" Hazel spoke into the comm.

Nico was already standing beside them in the hall. "Finally let's go." He grabbed them and Shadow Travelled outside the gallery.

Hazel hugged Zatanna, "You did great!" Zatanna, who was still dizzy from the shadow travel, just smiled at her.

"Where's Conner?" he asked when they finished their mini-celebration for their mini-mission.

The girls froze. " _We left Conner._ " Hazel said in a grave voice.

Zatanna was already making her way back into the gallery, "We have to go back, I can't believe we left him-"

"Left who?"

Zatanna jumped. Conner was sitting on the staircase right next to where she was standing. "Conner!"

"Yes."

Hazel hates to admit it but she was happy to see him. "We thought we left you inside."

"No, I got out here before you guys." he said, "You know I wouldn't have died in there, right?"

"Wow, what a touching moment." Nico said sarcastically, "Can we go now?"

"As long as we don't take the bus again." Zatanna smirked, "I doubt anyone would turn a blind eye to a world famous painting."

-(Line Break)-

Conner carried the painting when Zatanna's arms gave out and almost dropped it. He carried it like it weighed as much as an empty pillow sack.

There was tension in the air when they arrived at Piazza della Minerva and presented the painting to the goddess. She held the artwork as easily as Conner had and examined it.

"Good choice, good choice." Minerva muttered to herself, " _Amor Sacro e Amor Profano_ , decepting the two types of Venus. I remember asking Venus to pose for Titian so he could paint this."

"Um, Lady Minerva?" Nico interrupted politely.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot." the goddess didn't even look up at them. She snapped her fingers twice and the chain flew off of the obelisk and into Nico's hands.

"Let me see." Nico handed his sister the heavy chain. She examined the tightly weaved ringlets of gold and the snake head clasps, the eyes of the snakes were made of the brightest emeralds.

"Hazel. Hazel!" Nico must have said her name more than a couple of times because when she answered him he looked annoyed. "Maybe I should hold it."

Hazel gave him the chain without hesitation.

Zatanna clapped her hands together, "Okay mission completed, now what?"

"Now," Nico said, "We contact the others, tell them what's going, and find a good meeting place. Agreed?" Everyone nodded.

Nico went off somewhere in the piazza to make the Iris Message. Hazel took this chance to go thank Minerva but when she looked back at the statue the goddess was gone. Conner walked over to _Elephant and Obelisk_ and leaned against the statue.

Zatanna elbowed her, "Hey, what's up with you and Conner?"

"Nothing, I just don't…"

"Like him?" she finished, "I understand, he's… really hard to get used to."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Hazel joked.

"He's rough around the edges but he's only a couple months old."

"He's what?"

Zatanna ignored Hazel's question, "He did really good today too so maybe you should thank him, as a way to break the ice."

Hazel was still stuck on Conner only being a few months old when Zatanna pushed her towards him. She made sure to give her a wink and thumbs-up before walking away. Hazel sighed and decided to be the bigger man and get this over with.

"Hey Conner, you did really great today with the distraction and I just want to thank you for your cooperation." she said with a big smile on her face.

He completely ignored her. And this made Hazel _furious_.

" _Excuse me_. I am trying-"

"Do you hear that?" Conner asked, ignoring her anger. "Something's coming."

Hazel's rage melted, "Wha-"

There was a loud crash and screams that swallowed up what she was going to say. The crowd in the piazza was dispersed and what caused the crash became visible.

"What in Hades is _that_?" It was actually pretty obvious what it was. The golden stallions marched towards them. By golden, Hazel meant actually made of _gold_.

Their gold hides seemed oddly familiar but Hazel didn't have time to think about it when Conner suddenly grabbed her and pulled her away from the statue. She felt him jump high into the air and land on the ground harshly, away from the statue. Hazel tried to steady her blurry vision as she saw one of the horses ram into the elephant, right where they were standing.

"Thanks." Hazel said.

Conner seemed surprised that he was getting any thanks. "No problem." he said coolly, "But be ready, there's more coming."

Hazel nodded and snapped, a sheet of Mist around her waist dissipated revealing her spatha.

"When did you-" Conner didn't have time to finish when a gold horse ran straight towards him. With a grunt he caught it by its snout lifted it high into the air then smashed it back on the ground. When the first hit didn't work Conner did it repeatedly, causing it to (finally) break.

"Woah." Hazel said under her breath. But she quickly turned her attention away from the Superboy and back to the battlefield. She saw Nico successfully fighting off two of the horses, who were visibly afraid of his Stygian Iron sword.

Zatanna was having a lot less luck with only one horse attacking her. None of her spells were working and she was just trying to distract it by making it look like there were three of her.

"Cover me!" she screamed at Conner as she ran towards Zatanna. He looked slightly confused but followed her anyway.

A horse tried to strike her from the right but Conner caught it by its neck and threw it _way_ over the buildings. Another one tried to surprise her from the back but Conner punch his fist straight through its head.

Running up behind Zatanna, Hazel swung her sword in a wide arch and yelled "duck." The real Zatanna quickly moved out of the way while the other two got slashed along with the horse's head.

Hazel looked down at the severed head, a feeling of deja vu overcame her. Suddenly she realized why they looked familiar. They were the same horses from her dream.

Hazel felt like there were rocks in her stomach. She ran towards Nico as fast as she could, hoping that Conner would watch over Zatanna. She didn't realize it before but there was so much chaos happening in Piazza della Minerva. Mortals were panicking, Rome's law enforcement had arrived and were unsuccessfully trying to evacuate the square. Hazel couldn't tell what the mortals were seeing but it didn't look good for any of them.

Finally seeing Nico, she yelled out to him just as his Stygian sword impaled one of the horses, sucking up its essence. "Watch out they're after you!" The warning did nothing but harm.

Nico looked up at her in confusion, he probably didn't even hear what she said. The other horse he was fighting used this distraction to his advantage and head-butted Nico into the wall they backed him against. The head-but had obvious effects, Nico dropped his sword and curl against the wall weakly. The horse grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and began dragging him out of the piazza.

" _No_." Hazel screamed and ran towards her brother, but another horse rammed into her right side. Hazel was almost completely sure that the impact broke a few of her ribs. The horse aimed one of its hooves at her head. Hazel rolled out of the way and slowly got up, clutching her side with one hand and her sword with the other. Before she could do anything Conner grabbed the horse and threw him across the piazza. He gave her a quick once over.

"You're injured." he said blandly.

"Really I wouldn't have noticed." she deadpanned. "Come on, we have to get Zatanna."

Conner frowned, "Zatanna's… gone."

The rocks in Hazel's stomach climbed up her throat. She spied over the heads of the crowd to see if what he said was true. Where the magician should have been there was nothing but the decapitated horse's body.

Another horse tried to attacked suddenly but Conner punched it into a building. Hazel swallowed the rocks back down. "W-we have to get out of here." Conner nodded in agreement and they attempted their escape. Hazel looked back at her brother's sword and snapped, hopefully covering it with a thick enough layer of Mist so they could come back for it.

Conner cursed, "They're blocking our path." He was right, there were five or six of the golden horses standing in their way back to the car.

"Not for long." Hazel said menacingly. Two slabs of stone thrust through the ground on each side of the horses. Hazel willed the slabs to come together and crush them. Conner gave a quick glance at the scrap metal that used to be the horses as they ran past it.

"Where is it!" Hazel exclaimed as she searched desperately for the car.

"Look." Conner pointed at the side of the road where their black van and Jules-Albert should have been. All that was left were tire tracks and two backpacks.

Hazel picked up her bag and Conner picked up Nico's. "This can't get any worse."

The distant sound of galloping interrupted Hazel's words.

"Looks like you jinxed it."

"Come on."

The teens moved back into the piazza, which was still trying to recover from the recent attacks.

Hazel looked around for any place to hide. But she didn't want to take the risk of going into a building and endangering everyone in there.

"Hurry in here." Conner said pushing her into a narrow alley.

Hazel could barely fit with the backpack on so Conner must have felt like a squashed bug.

It felt like years had gone by waiting in the alley. But the time spent between two walls gave Hazel something she really didn't want. Time to think.

Time to think about how this was all her fault. She knew the horses from somewhere, if only she realized it early. Maybe then they wouldn't have lost Nico and Zatanna.

Then it dawned on her. They didn't only lose their people but they lost what they came here for in the first place. She recalled vaguely the bright gold chain clutched in Nico's hands as he was dragged away.

The rocks in her stomach felt as heavy as boulders.

"I thinks it's safe." Conner said after years of silence. "I don't hear hooves anymore."

The teens slowly slid out of the alley and back into the piazza, it was nearing sunset by now. Everything seemed so surreal.

"We have to find a place to stay, don't we?" Hazel said tiredly.

Conner nodded. He led the way to a local inn. While he talked to the lady at the desk in perfect Italian, Hazel gazed at her reflection in the window. She looked a mess, to put it simply. She noted that Conner didn't looks much better. But judging by the smile on the desk woman's face as she handed him their key, she wasn't planning on asking any questions.

Hazel and Conner dragged their dirty, tired, and ragged bodies' up to their room. They dropped the bags and flopped on to the bed simultaneously.

"This is all my fault." they said in unison.

"Wait, what? How is this your fault?"

"I'm the one who left Zatanna alone for too long."

"But I'm the one who knew about the horses and didn't do anything about it."

"Hold on. You knew about the horses?"

"You know what, it's all of ours faults. All four of us." Hazel didn't feel like explaining the demigod dream-thing so she just left it at that.

Conner just nodded absentmindedly. "Okay, since you're used to this, what should we do now?"

"Isn't it obvious." The rocks in Hazel's stomach crumbled to dust. "We get them back."

* * *

 **Are there any POVs you really want to see? Please comment them and I may use them in the story!**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up soon (hopefully)!**


	12. Hanging Teens and Murderous Cults

**This is my shortest chapter so far! Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

When Raquel woke up all she could see was purple smoke. She tried to get up and move but it felt as if she was tied to a tree, then she looked down and noticed she _was_ tied to a tree. Raquel turned her head against the tree as much as she could until her cheek scraped harshly against the bark.

Raquel let out a relieved sigh when she realized her wrist were loose enough for her to reach her belt. She touched her waist with her fingertips but felt no sign of the belt on her. Looking down through the purple smoke she saw that her belt wasn't anywhere near her. "Where's my belt?" she exclaimed.

"Don't worry it's all taken care of." a voice said out of the smoke.

Raquel would've jumped ten feet into the air if she wasn't tied to the tree. "Who's there?"

The smoke suddenly cleared just enough so she could see a man was standing in it. Raquel was surprised to notice that he was almost naked, the only thing covering him was a leopard skin loincloth. At first, he stood completely still like a statue, it wouldn't be surprising if he really was one considering how pale his skin was. But just as suddenly as the smoke cleared he screamed "philas" at the loudest volume possible and struck a pose that reminded Raquel of a one-legged ballerina.

"What?" she screamed back just as loud.

"Philas!" he said again. "You asked who's there and I answered back with my name. _Philas_!" Every time he repeated his name he got a little louder.

"Uggh…" Raquel heard a small moan of pain from the other side of the tree and hoped it was one of her friends.

"Robin? Aqualad?" she called out to them.

"Jason." he responded.

"I can work with that," she said with a small shrug. "What's wrong with you? You sound like you've been hit with a brick."

"It wouldn't be the first time."

"Finally, our guest are starting to wake up!" Philas struck a different pose, "I am-"

"Jason this is Phil, Phil this is Jason." Raquel said quickly.

"Where are we exactly, uh... Phil?" Raquel felt Jason shift in their bonds. "And why are we tied to a tree?"

"Don't fret young ones!" he did a spin, "You're here for the ceremony!" Raquel didn't know why they were being referred to as "young ones" when he looked just about the same age. The only thing that made him seem any older was his white hair that matched his pale skin.

Jason seemed more preoccupied with something else that Phil said. "Wait, what ceremony?"

"All will be revealed if you are patient Jason Grace."

Raquel furrowed her brow. "You know, it's kind of weird that you've got us tied up like this, Phil. Considering how… friendly you are."

"Is it?"

"Yes, it is. And you know what else is weird- I don't think I ever told you Jason's last name."

Phil stopped mid-turn and got back into a regular standing position. It didn't phase Raquel that he had suddenly gotten serious, what surprised her is when he started laughing. And it wasn't any regular laugh, it was _maniacal_.

"Seems like you've found me out." an incredibly creepy smile formed on his face. For the first time since he introduces himself, Philas opened his eyes revealing them to be entirely purple. "And I was really trying to keep you passive until the ceremony started. Or at least until it was too late for you save your friend."

All the smoke around them dissipated and revealed hundreds of pale-skinned men and women standing behind Phil. But they aren't what caught Raquel's eye. Above them suspended by a rope was Robin, who looked sound asleep. Or at least she hoped he was asleep.

"What are you doing to him?" Raquel cried angrily.

"What's happening?" Jason twisted in his binds. Being on the other side of the tree he couldn't see what was going on.

"You let Robin go right now!"

"Why would I want to let him go?" Phil asked innocently, "He should be honored."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Isn't obvious? He's the youngest member of you young heroes. We've been preparing him for this role since you landed on this mountain, that's why we pushed his mind into eating the fruit. With this smoke," Phil pushed his hands through the vapor around him, "it is still there even if you can't see it."

Raquel let her head drop back onto the tree. "No wonder he was acting so weird."

Jason spoke from the opposite side of the tree. "You mean he isn't always like that?"

"No, not really. He can be annoying and reckless and he leaves without telling anyone _and_ -"

"Raquel," Jason interrupted, "What's your point?"

"My point is that he's been acting silly- no, more like _crazy_ since we encountered the sheep."

"Crazy is what we're all about." Phil smiled his disturbing smile and cleared his throat. "Bring out the wine!"

Some of Phil's pale friends disappeared then reappeared with a giant crate of wine on wheels and put it right under Robin.

"What are you doing?" Raquel yelled.

"Now that we're getting started I guess it's okay to tell you." Philas walked closer to Raquel. "We are putting on a play for our great king, Dionysus!"

The crowds behind him repeated Dionysus again and again like it was some sacred mantra. After a few seconds Phil put up is hand to silence him.

"Who's Dionysus?" There were several gasps in response to Raquel's query.

"Dionysus is the god of wine, theater, and _madness,_ " Jason answered. "He also has a habit of forgetting people's names."

"You know _nothing_ about our god." Philas snapped, "As I was saying, we put on a play once every decade for Lord Dionysus."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"For as long as Lord Dionysus has been a god, young lady. Every decade we choose a group of people and coax their youngest into eating the fruit. Then we… _borrow_ the rest of this group so they can fight to get back their youngest's life as well as their own. If they fail we kill them and drown the youngest in the wine."

Raquel sneered, "What kind of sick play is this?"

"I tragedy, my dear. And we all know how badly those end."

"Let us out of here!" Raquel struggled violently against her binds.

"Raquel wait!" Jason said, "You said we get a chance to fight, right? What happens if we win?"

"Then we'd be forced to let you live and the heroes win that scene. But, no one's won any of the challenges in twelve thousand years so…"

"We'll try anyway." Raquel interrupted.

Philas threw up his hands. "Okay fine! But you'll need a third member and your friend over there doesn't look like he's in condition to do anything."

"What friend?" Raquel and Jason said in unison.

"That one over there." Philas cleared all the smoke in the direction he was pointing in. Under all of it was Aqualad who was still in deep sleep and breathing easy while he lied against a bush near the tree they were tied to.

"I'll let you go so you can wake the other one up." Philas snapped and the ropes disappeared, "But if you try to escape we'll kill you _and_ your little friend."

-(Line Break)-

Raquel gently shook the sleeping Atlantean and was surprised when he opened his eyes almost immediately. But he closed them quickly and groaned. "Raquel? Wh-where are we?" He moaned again, "Where's Robin?"

"He's kind of tied up right now. No pun intended." she said.

"I know this may be a bad time for you," Jason helped Kaldur up, "But we're in a really bad situation that we literally have no time to expl-"

"Great!" Philas interrupted Jason as he tried to explain why he couldn't explain what was going on. "Now that you're all awake we can commence the announcement of challenges." Everyone in the background erupted into cheering that was silenced by a rise of Philas's hand.

"Is it just me or is it weird that he just had an announcement for an announcement." Jason said under his breath. Raquel would've laughed if she wasn't standing in front of a murderous cult that was about to tell them about all the terrifying plans they had ready for them.

"And to decide the task we'll be using everyone's favorite circular object." Philas paused for dramatic effect, "The Wheel of Madness!"

Everyone repeated 'madness' over and over again after Phil said it. Two women dressed in leopard skin bikinis pushed out the wheel of madness so that it was right next to a crate of wine and Robin. It looked a lot like the wheel of fortune but it replaced the money and prizes with various horrifying challenges.

"Since we have three competitors we'll turn the wheel three times." he said, "Now let's spin for the first challenge! Althea, be a doll."

One of the bikini-clad women, who must have been Althea, stepped up and spun the wheel. It turned for what felt like years and it lingered unsettlingly on 'A Walk Through Hades' but finally stopped on 'Pinecone Picking'. Jason and Raquel let out breaths they didn't know they were holding.

"Well isn't that boring." Philas visibly scowled then cleared his throat, "All well, the wheel has spoken. For this challenge, you'll be picking pinecones."

"That's not that bad." Raquel said.

"Pinecones that happen to be underwater!" Philas and the rest of the followers stepped to the side and cleared a path revealing a giant lake behind them.

Jason shrugged, "We can still-"

"And the water is freezing cold and filled with sharks!" Just then a bunch of shark fins surfaced and swam menacingly.

"It can't get any harder." Raquel tried to remain optimistic.

"Did I mention that you'll only have a minute and I'm not telling how many there are." Philas smiled as if he made the rules up himself, which he probably did. "The goal is to get more pinecones than your opponents."

"Wait, _opponents_ ," Raquel exclaimed, "Like multiple people we're going up against."

"Of course! If it wasn't one against five it would be a challenge, would it? _And_ we get to pick which one of you go first."

"Uh uh!" Raquel stood up in protest, "You know that is _not_ fair!"

"It doesn't matter if it's fair sweetheart, I made up the rules." Philas's grin eerily reminded Raquel of Cheshire's mask. "Now, excuse us while we make our decision." After that Philas and the other followers got into a huge football huddle that was filled with whispers.

Raquel turned back to Jason, "I can't believe this! What are we going to do?"

Jason looked at Raquel. "I've got a plan, just follow my lead." Jason glanced quickly at the huddle before speaking as loudly as possible. "Oh no, it's too bad they get to pick who goes first. I really hope they don't pick Kaldur."

Raquel smiled with understanding. "Oh yes, anyone of us but Kaldur, he's so weak right now." she spoke equally as loud as Jason.

"If he goes into that freezing shark infested water he might _die_." he said dramatically. Kaldur seemed to have caught on as well and let out a fake little moan to add to the theatrics.

"That would give us less of a chance to save Robin too. We can't have two deaths in one day."

Raquel glanced at the huddle and saw Philas sticking his head out from the masses of people, obviously listening. Or maybe he thought he was eavesdropping on their super secret conversation.

"I know who we're picking!" he said suddenly. The followers made a path for him as he walked towards the trio. "You with the tattoos get up." Aqualad made a show of dragging himself to the edge of the lake while five Michael Phelps-looking followers stood at the edge along with him.

Philas held up a timer that he pulled out from seemingly nowhere. "On my mark… get set… go!"

And then they were off. It must have been an exciting match, too bad none of them could tell because it was underwater. But Raquel could vaguely make out large gray masses that must have been sharks moving quickly underwater, they must have been chasing their prey.

All of a sudden Kaldur's head resurfaced. He deposited the pinecones he collected on the ground and pulled himself out of the water with 15 seconds to spare.

Phil looked down at his timer. "What… what are you doing?"

"I couldn't find anymore," Kaldur answered nonchalantly, "I hope these are all of them."

"How did you do that?" Just as he asked the five followers he sent in resurfaced holding no pinecones. "Where are all your pinecones?" The men just shrugged at him.

The timer rang and the expression on Philas's face was a mixture of confusion and anger. "Althea! Count the pinecones!" he yelled.

She bent down to count them, which only took a second. Once she stood up Philas asked her "Is that all twelve of them?" and she nodded.

"I really thought there would be more than that." As he said that Aqualad looked like he was trying to hold a smirk back.

Phil's purple eyes stared intently at Aqualad who was still wet from his short swim, then his eyes widened. It looked like he finally noticed his gills and webbed hands and feet.

"You cheaters!" he exclaimed, suddenly sounding like a child, "You had an Atlantean with you! We should kill you for that!"

"Didn't you make up the rules, _sweetheart_?" Raquel chided.

The follower's wine colored eyes darkened for second before reverting back to normal. "Fine." he chuckled, "Let's see how you fair with the next challenge."

* * *

 **I felt like this chapter wasn't my best but my writer's block is starting to clear up so hopefully the updates will be better and come a little quicker!**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up soon (hopefully)!**


	13. Guilty Teens and Long Stories

**Hope you enjoy this chapter, constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

Artemis really wished she hadn't gone on this mission.

 _Quest_ , she corrected herself mentally but didn't dare say anything out loud. Even her mortal ass recognized when there's a powerful person (or god or whatever you wanted to call it) in front of her. And these three ladies _oozed_ power, just a glare from the dark-haired woman had them shaking in their shoes.

" _I said_ ," the dark-haired woman repeated again, "Court is now in session."

Artemis heard rustling to the left of her and turned to see a group sit down all at once in what looked like a jury box. Artemis looked around and noticed the entire room was set up like a courtroom. There was even a witness stand and a desk for the prosecuting attorney.

The only difference between this courtroom and a regular one was that no one in this room was human.

Well, everyone looked pretty human but with a closer look the bailiff had goat legs and some of the juries had oddly colored skin. But Artemis was trying to focus on the scary goddesses in front of her.

All three women looked pretty similar, they all had porcelain colored skin and shocking blue eyes that reminded her of Jason. The only difference was in their hair color, the woman who spoke first had black hair and the women to her right and left were a redhead and blonde respectively.

Suddenly the redhead disappeared and reappeared at the prosecutor's desk. "May I start with my prosecuting statement, Dike?" she asked the brunette. Dike, which coincidentally rhymed with Nike, was a weird name. But Artemis had already noted that all gods had weird names (excluding the one she was named after).

"Of course, Eunomia." she replied.

"The defendants have been running around the sacred temple of our father all night and destroying his secret tunnels. My suggested punishment-" she paused for dramatic effect, "is death."

"Hold it right there!" Percy yelled, making the jury murmur. "What evidence do you have that we did anything?"

"I don't know, maybe the hundreds of blocked tunnels we left behind us." Wally hissed at Percy.

"Don't worry, I've seen like every episode of Law & Order. I know how to handle this."

Artemis highly doubted that it was pretty obvious that Annabeth was the brains of the relationship.

Eunomia cleared her throat, "Since we're on the topic of evidence: here is exhibit A!" She pulled out a shiny green scale that was the size of her head. "This is a scale from the one and only Python, which they've released to wreak havoc on Dodoni."

"Objection!" M'gann exclaimed.

Dike looked at her with amusement, "And what are you objecting to exactly?"

M'gann's confident voice wavered, "T-the evidence?"

Dike smiled like a mad scientist who just got a new lab rat. "What do you think the final verdict is, sister?"

"Maybe…" Eunomia pretended to think, " _Guilty_. Cuff 'em bailiff."

"I guess we're not going to be able to reason our way out of this one," Percy said as he pulled out his pen-sword. Artemis personally preferred to fight her way out of things, she wasn't really the reasoning type.

"So how are we going to fight off three goddesses?" M'gann asked.

Wally laughed "We should take hostages or something."

"I don't know about that, bailiff goat-man-"

"Satyr." Percy corrected.

Artemis continued, "And the others don't look like pushovers." She reached for an arrow, preparing for a fight.

Just then, the blonde goddess stood up from her seat next to Dike. "Wait," she said. She didn't yell or even raise her voice, but she was still able to quiet the room. "Are you really going to execute our guest without proper introductions?"

"We know who they are, Eirene." Dike hissed at her.

"But do they know us?" she fires back.

Dike look like she wanted to argue, but gave up. "Fine, do what you want."

Eirene looked back at Artemis and the rest of the group, "Please excuse my sisters' rudeness. They haven't had anyone to punish in a long time." She smiled brightly and Artemis felt like she was meeting Apollo again.

"We are the Horae, goddesses of law and order, daughters of Zeus and Themis. We used to keep order in the mortal world but once they learned how to do that for themselves-"

"More or less!" Dike interjected.

"We were given the task of delivering justice to any mortals or demigods who came upon these ruins."

Eunomia laughed bitterly, "And it's quite a boring job if you haven't guessed."

"Dike acts as Justice, Eunomia as Order, and I," she said motioned to herself, "am Peace." Artemis wasn't too surprised by that considering the aura of tranquility as well as firmness. Like a kindergarten teacher disciplining a bad kid.

"Now, we should let the defendants make their case," Eirene said.

"They've already had their chance!" Eunomia argued.

"We didn't even let them elaborate on their objection." Eirene looked at M'gann, "So what was it about the evidence you wanted to talk about?"

"Um…" M'gann was obviously at a lost for words, so Artemis decided that she would try to help. In the past Artemis didn't really like M'gann, Zatanna said it was because she stole the man she never really had, but Artemis likes to say it's because they have such contrasting personalities. Whatever the real reason is, it doesn't matter at the moment.

Artemis knew that Eirene was giving them an opening but she couldn't think of anyway the scale would help them with their case. How did she even get it? When the Python was hit with her sharpest arrow it bounced off it without leaving a-

Instantly, it made sense.

"The scale!" she said it out loud without knowing, "How'd you get it?"

"Excuse me." the redheaded goddess glared at her.

"I mean," Artemis watched her words carefully. She hadn't forgotten that with a snap of her fingers, Harmonia sent her twenty feet into the air. "When I used my arrow there wasn't anything close to a scratch on it."

The jury began to murmur while Dike tried to call for order in the court. It was already obvious the Eunomia had become flustered and taken by surprise. Artemis looked up at Eirene like she was looking for her approval and got a wink that said the goddess thought she did well.

"Well… I… fine! I made the scale myself!" There was a collective gasp from the jury. "But that doesn't mean that they didn't let the Python loose."

Wally gave Artemis a pat on the back, M'gann smiled at her, and Percy just muttered that this was exactly like Law & Order. Artemis was feeling pretty smug about herself when Dike struck her gavel against the bench.

"Considering this…" she began.

"Misdemeanor." Eirene finished.

"Yes… misdemeanor." Dike sounded like it physically pained her to talk. "We'll have to adjourn court for today to reconsider the prosecution's statement against the defendant."

Artemis could feel the tension ease in the air as the jury clapped for them, showing how impressed they were. Something told her that this was the first time anyone had delayed a session against the goddesses of law and order.

Her friends (and Wally) were surrounding her with praise when Eirene came up to them. "Well done mortal." she assumed that in this case mortal was a compliment. "And now for your reward."

Percy stepped in, "Lady Eirene your help was all the reward we need." Artemis didn't want to tell him that she would really prefer to receive whatever gift she was offering.

"No, you must take it." The blonde goddess held out her hand and a scepter appeared in it. Artemis examined it as it was handed to her, it was taller than she was and made of wood. I was tipped with an orb that was covered with leaves from an olive tree. "This will help you with the next part of your journey."

Artemis raised her brow in confusion but Eirene had already turned towards Percy. "I hope our shrines will be the next to be built at your camp." She winked at him and walked away.

"Um, guys," Wally called out to Percy and Artemis. "The door isn't opening." M'gann and Wally were already trying to push it open.

"Let me try." Percy pushed the door as hard as he could but it didn't budge. "Maybe we can ask Lady Eirene-" but when they looked back towards the courtroom everyone was gone.

Wally groaned in frustration. "So we're stuck here until the next court session."

"Wait," Artemis looked down at Eirene's scepter. She said it would help them, Artemis didn't know how but she would try anyway. "Let me try." Everyone moved away from the door as she approached it. All Artemis could do is wave the scepter in the door's general direction like it was a wand.

"No offense Arty, but I don't think magic is your forte." Wally laughed and M'gann elbowed him to be quiet.

"No, wait. It's working." Percy brought their attention back to the door as it slowly opened.

Wally was speechless for the first time in a while when the door open fully. "Wow.. h-how did you do that?"

"It wasn't me it was the scepter," Artemis said with a smile. Wally tried to grab it from her but it moved away from her touch like magnetics with the same poles.

"Just let me look at it!" he yelled.

"I'm not doing it!" she yelled back. "It's the scepter!"

"I guess it's only for you, Artemis." M'gann laughed, "Let's go, we've already wasted enough time."

"M'gann's right, I think with all that's happened we forgot that we're here to find Apollo's key," Percy said.

"Maybe that's why she gave us her scepter," Wally exclaimed, "So we could find the key."

"How's it supposed to do that?" Artemis asked. The scepter moved as if to answer her question.

"Woah!" Artemis tried to keep it in place but it continued to pull her out the door.

Percy raised his brow, "I think it wants us to follow it."

"Of course we should follow the magical moving staff," Wally said sarcastically.

"Won't be the weirdest thing we've done," M'gann replied.

-(Line Break)-

"So where are we going, exactly?" Wally asked after about an hour of walking.

"If I knew the answer to that," Artemis hissed, "Don't you think I would've told you?" The white tiles of the courtroom had long disappeared and they were now walking down the familiar dirt tunnel again.

Suddenly the scepter stopped moving, Artemis let go of it and it hovered in the air. "I guess we're here," she said.

"Well, what's here?" Wally asked. The group looked around for something that stood out, but there was nothing but rocks and mud.

"I think we should dig." The heroes gave Percy a weird look, "The head of the scepter is pointing towards the ground so I think that whatever we're here to find is where it's pointing."

The heroes considered it and they all agreed that it was the best thing any of them was coming up with. "You wouldn't happen to have a shovel in that quiver?" Wally joked. Artemis ignored him and got to work.

It probably would have taken a lot less than half an hour if Wally just helped a little more. M'gann was telepathically moving dirt while Percy used his pen-sword as a shovel. Eventually, his sword hit a something that wasn't dirt and made a loud thump.

Wally wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead. "Looks like we hit something." He reached into the hole they dug and pulled out a wooden box.

Artemis looked over the speedster's shoulder as he opened the box. Whatever was in it shone so brightly that the light from it leaked from the holes in the box. Wally opened the box slowly and the contents of it surprised everyone.

"Is this supposed to be the key?" Wally asked as she pulled the sharp object out of the box. It stopped glowing as soon as it was in the palm of his hand.

Artemis took it from him. "No, I think it's an arrowhead." The arrowhead was obviously from ancient times but it was made with shiny bronze that made it look like it was made yesterday.

"Maybe the arrowhead is the key?" M'gann suggested.

Percy shrugged, "Who knows, it's Apollo we're talking about."

Before anyone else could add their two cents a low rumble was felt throughout the tunnel.

"Oh no, it's back again." Wally groaned. He handed Artemis the box. "You should protect the arrowhead, in case it's important." Artemis actually listen to Wally for once and put the arrowhead back in the box for now.

"Don't worry guys." M'gann said, "If the Python comes I'll just crush it with a bunch of rocks to buy us more time."

The rumbling increased and the walls shook as the snake made it's appearance through the tunnel they just came from.

"If you're going to crush it, M'gann now's a good time," Percy said as he took his sword out in preparation for battle.

M'gann's eyes glowed green and the earth trembled a little more as stalactites fell from the tunnel's ceiling. The first one missed and so did the second and the third. Artemis suddenly realized that M'gann wasn't missing, but the snake was _dodging_. It was a terrifying realization, knowing that this mindless monster could learn from its mistakes and actually think for itself. M'gann was also visibly shaken by the idea too.

"I don't think that's going to work this time," Percy muttered.

"Kid Flash," M'gann said in a tone of urgency, "I need you to do the same thing you did last time while I try to make an avalanche big enough to keep it down for a while." Wally adjusted his goggles then sprung into action. Artemis looked at M'gann and doubted that she could move anything big at the moment. I wasn't like she got tired of moving things with her mind, it's just that she looked physically exhausted.

"I'll help too," Percy said. Before getting a response from anyone he sprung into action. "Hey! Big, green, and ugly! Look over here!" The Python took its eyes off of Wally and looked at Percy, it aimed its tail at him, but Percy easily dodged it. Sometimes Percy actually lives up to how dangerous Batman makes him out to be.

"Artemis! I need you to..." M'gann was already hovering in the air. She was hesitating in her words like she was trying to figure out what she should tell her. "Stay with the arrowhead."

Artemis knew what busy worked sounded like and guarding the arrowhead was just that. Artemis was actually a little glad that they didn't give her a huge part this time around. Secretly, she'd been feeling a little useless since her last attempt at shooting the Python. It just confused her how easily the arrow bounced off the snake's skin. Annabeth told them that Apollo killed the Python using an arrow, so what was so different about her arrows?

 _Probably that they aren't godly arrows or something stupid like that._ Artemis thought to herself.

Suddenly, it dawned on her. It _was_ because they weren't godly arrows. She thought back to Reyna's golden sword, arrowhead shined just a little brighter than that. It only made sense that this arrowhead was Apollo's, maybe even the same one that he killed the serpent with before.

 _Artemis_ , it was M'gann talking to her telepathically. _I need you to take the arrowhead and_ -

 _Shoot it at the snake, I know._ Artemis was unscrewing the head of one of her arrows and replacing it with Apollo's. It fit surprisingly well.

 _Try to be as discreet as possible,_ M'gann was back in her head. _This needs to be a perfect shot._

 _Roger that._ The voice in her head disappeared and she notched her new arrow. She looked at the snake, whose head was moving wildly as it tried to follow Percy and Wally's movement. M'gann still hovered in the same spot trying to muster enough strength to cause an avalanche. Artemis breathed in deeply and looked at the snake, its eye was the perfect target. She only had one shot so she better make it good.

Artemis let the arrow fly.

And it hit its mark.

The arrow plunged straight into the Python's eye. It screeched and panicked as the arrow seemed to sink deeper into its eye. Artemis's teammates moved away from the snake as it thrashed its head against the ceiling of the tunnel until cracks began to appear in it. One last good thump made the ceiling crumble on the Python. It laid still under the rocks for a moment before turning into dust.

"Nice job, Artemis!" M'gann said as she landed back on the ground. The martian gave her a big congratulatory hug.

Percy smiled at her, "Congratulations you killed your first monster." he gave her a pat on the back. To be honest she would have preferred a hug from him instead of M'gann.

"That's not as good as I could have done but, whatever."

"Shut up, Kid Stupid."

"Love you too, Artie."

"Look," M'gann said pointing up. None of them had noticed that the Python broke through to the surface.

Artemis grabbed the scepter then M'gann flew them all up there telekinetically and they all basked in the sunlight of the rising sun.

The beautiful moment was ruined by Percy's exclamation. "Guys, what about the key?"

Wally groaned, "Please don't tell me we have to go back down there."

"You scared, Kid Stupid?"

" _No_ , I'm just-" The staff suddenly moved out of Artemis's hand and flew towards Percy.

"Woah, what's going on?" he said as the scepter began to poke at his pockets. "What does it want?"

"What's in your pockets, Percy?" M'gann asked.

Percy emptied his pockets and all that were in them was a few drachmas, his pen-sword, and the fang he cut off the Python earlier.

Wally picked up the Python's fang from Percy, it was only as long as his hand and about the thickness of an index finger at the tip and slowly got wider. "This would make a cool souvenir," Wally exclaimed. The scepter was now following him when he moved around with the fang.

M'gann looked at Percy. "You don't think…"

"The fang must be the key." As if to back up Percy's answer, the scepter glowed brightly then poofed away.

"The staff has spoken!" Percy said as he took away the fang from Wally. "Sorry about your souvenir, man."

Artemis raised a brow. "Do you really think that could be a key to anything?"

"It looks like it could fit in the keyhole at Delphi. Plus it doesn't hurt to try right!" There was a moment of silence then everyone agreed with Percy because, again, no one had any better answers that didn't involve going back underground.

M'gann sighed, "Let's go to the ship and head back to Delphi."

Wally yawned, "We should set the Bio-Ship on autopilot so we can all take a nap." M'gann silently agreed as they started walking back up towards the Bio-Ship.

Before she could catch up with her friends Percy touched her shoulder. "What you did back there, it was really cool."

She stared into his sea green eyes and suppressed a blush. "Thanks, it's what anyone of you would've done."

He smiled at her but she could see the seriousness in his eyes. "What's your relationship with your parents like, Artemis?"

Artemis's stomach did somersaults. "I know them well enough," she said quickly, "Live with my mom, dad's been out of the picture for awhile. You know how it is." Usually, she added the last part to make people feel bad for her and stop asking questions, but something told her that Percy _did_ know what it was like.

"Yeah, I do." he said slowly.

When they were making their way to the ship, it was Artemis's turn to ask a question. "Why do you ask? About my parents, I mean."

"Just wanted to know why you're so much like your namesake."

"Artemis, like the goddess? Have you met her before?"

"I've met _with_ her a handful of time but I feel like I only had one real conversation with her. A couple years back, I was around your age and…" he looked at Artemis. "It's kind of a long story."

By now the two were approaching the Bio-Ship, where Wally and M'gann were waiting at the entrance. She glanced at them, then back at Percy.

"Tell me about it."

* * *

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up soon (hopefully)!**


	14. Determined Teens and Moments of Truth

**Hope you enjoy this chapter, constructive criticism is always welcomed!**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.**

* * *

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Conner asked.

 _We get them back_. Conner was surprised by how confidently she said that. But he had already established that Hazel was full of surprises.

"I don't know. I'll figure something out, I had a dream about the horses earlier. It may help us."

"Is that what you're going to form our battle strategy on? A dream?"

"Demigod dreams are different, they usually mean something. They're even prophetic sometimes, mortals wouldn't understand."

"That's…" Conner stumbled on his words.

"Weird." It was like she read his mind. "Says the sixteen-year-old human tank."

He was going to retort but realized she had a point. "Then what should I do?"

"You." she tossed him a towel. "Go take a shower while I figure out a strategy. Then take a nap because we're leaving early in the morning." Then she waved her hand at him flippantly.

"So I'm just supposed to sit here and relax while you do everything." Conner clenched his fists. "Don't think that just because you're a half _god_ means you can order me around." Conner regretted the words as soon as they came out his mouth. M'gann was trying to teach him to watch his words and be a little kinder, but he just snapped at a little girl.

Before he could get his apology out Hazel whipped around and stared at him with her gold eyes that were filled with a hundred years of anger. "I'm going to do what I need to do to help _our_ friends. I'm not going to sit here and waste time arguing with you. So either suck it up and work with me or step aside."

Conner remembered when his harsh words made M'gann and his Teammates flinch. Hazel didn't flinch. Conner grabbed his towel which had fallen to the floor and silently walked into the bathroom.

Under the heat of the water, Conner thought about how much of a jerk he could be. M'gann always said it was because he had literally been born a couple of months ago so he lacked the social skills of other teens. But Hazel obviously thought he was just an asshole. She was so kind to her brother, Nico, and Zatanna but every time he was in her line of vision she seemed so angry. Turning off the shower water, Conner decided to put some of those social skills M'gann taught him to good use.

After he was dried and dressed he went into the room and found Hazel sitting in front of her bed. On her bed were a bunch of pictures, upon closer inspection Conner saw they were actually drawings of different scenes.

"What's this?" he asked.

Hazel looked at him and blushed. "I'll tell you when you put a shirt on."

Conner looked down at himself, he hadn't even noticed his lack of a shirt. The one he was wearing before was completely torn up after the fight. He grabbed a new shirt from his bag and turned back towards Hazel who was now organizing the charcoal drawings. "Did you draw these?"

She looked at him and decided he was decent enough to talk to. "Yeah, they're scenes from my dream. I'm just trying to figure them out."

Conner tried to hide his impressed expression, who knew the demigoddess could draw. "It's just like you said."

"You were listening to that when we were in the van?" she questioned, "I was sure you thought it was stupid."

"That's not- I didn't mean…" Conner sat in silence for a second, not knowing what else to say. "Look, I'm sorry. Since we met I've been kind of a-"

"Blockhead." she finished.

"I was going to say jackass, but that works too." The corner of Hazel's mouth turned up a bit.

"We may not like each other that much, but we have to get along so we can save our friends."

"Deal." He didn't really know if he and Hazel could be friends but they would have to try for now. "So what are we dealing with?"

"Here's the beginning of my dream." She points to a scene where two people are curled up in a ball while being encircled by three horses.

"Those are the horses we fought with."

"Yeah, they're trying to suffocate Zatanna and Nico." she pointed to the next picture. "But here Zatanna stops them."

That picture had Zatanna unraveling herself while something branched out from her and touched Nico. "How did she do that?"

Hazel was quiet for a second. "Magic. But, I think Zatanna should tell you exactly what's up when we get her back."

Conner didn't understand what she was talking about but didn't question any further. "So if they get themselves out then what's the problem?"

"The problem is here." She pointed to another picture of Zatanna and Nico being laid out flat.

"There's a shadow." he pointed to a dark silhouette drawn near their friends' bodies.

"Yup." she said matter-of-factly, "The goal of tomorrow is to get there before whoever is casting that shadow does."

"Is it really going to be that simple?"

Hazel laughs humorlessly. "It never is." she talked like she was a thousand years old. "But, you're a simple guy I was hoping to make it easier for a young man like you to understand."

Conner should have been offended, but then Hazel stood up and winced. "You're injured."

"Am I that transparent?" She started picking up all her drawings and winced with every movement.

"Maybe you should rest." he took her drawings from her and began picking up the rest.

She gave him a surprised look. "You're a good kid." she sat down on her bed. "Do me a favor and give me my bag."

He handed the girl her bag and tried to ignore the fact that she called him a kid. She dug through it until she pulled out a Ziploc bag labeled 'AMBROSIA' with big black letters. While Hazel was… doing whatever she does, Conner looked through the rest of Hazel's drawings.

"What are the rest of these about?" The last few scenes she drew looked nothing like the other drawings.

Hazel's mouth was full when she answered. "They're from a different part of my dream."

Conner looked at the last picture, it was of Hazel. She was floating limply underwater. "Did you… did you drown?"

She swallowed, "Looks like." she zipped up the bag of ambrosia and stuck it back in her bag. Oddly, she seemed fine now. "But we'll worry about me after we get Nico and Zatanna. Now, _I'm_ going to take a shower and _you're_ going to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow." At that note, she walked into the bathroom like she never had any broken ribs.

Conner looked back at the charcoal drawings and decided that not only was Hazel full of surprises but she was also a talented artist.

-(Line Break)-

After a nice hotel breakfast, Hazel and Conner set out at the crack of dawn.

"So how are we doing this?" Conner asked as nicely as possible. Hazel looked sleepy and had been in a particularly bad mood this morning. Usually, he would have responded with the same bad attitude but all he wanted to do at the moment was find Zatanna.

"When Nico got pulled away he had the gem for the Necklace of Harmonia with him." she looked at Conner expecting him to understand what she was planning. When he gave her a blank look she sighed. "The gem had a weird aura around it so I'll be able to track easily."

Conner really wanted to ask how she was going to do that but couldn't help remembering that she crushed a bunch of horses between stone walls. So tracking the gem couldn't have been impossible.

"While I do that," Hazel continued, "You watch my back. We don't know if any other horses will show up."

"Got it." he left it at that. From this point on it was all business. They walked into the forest that Nico was dragged in.

The forest wasn't anything special it just felt… lonely. Even though it was bright and early the forest made it feel like the sun was setting and they were about to be engulfed in darkness. But complete darkness never came and they continued to wander.

They were about an hour into their lovely stroll when Hazel suddenly stopped in a meadow.

Conner halted to a stop to avoid running into her. "What's wrong?"

"Do you see that?" she asked pointing to something at the edge of the meadow.

The mound was _just_ peeking out of the forest enough for Conner to see it in the light, but it didn't look like anything special to him. "I see it but, it just looks likes a big pile of-"

"Schist," she said confidently.

"What?"

"Come on." Hazel started forward without an explanation, so Conner was forced to follow.

"So is this schist?" he asked her.

"Nope," When Hazel stood next to the rock it came up to her waist. "I can feel every pebble and precious stone around but for some reason, I never sensed a rock this big. I wonder why?"

She waved her hand over the rock and suddenly it wasn't a rock anymore. When the Mist dissolved around it, it revealed itself to be a hatch. It looked like something that came off of an old submarine. Hazel tried to move the rusted wheel of the hatch and found it wasn't going to budge.

"I've got it." Conner turned the wheel as easily as a bodybuilder would open a pickle jar. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hazel nod approvingly.

Conner pulled open the hatch and gazed into the darkness.

"It's weird that I couldn't see this earlier. I can usually sense tunnels and pretty much anything underground." Hazel commented. "I can, now that you opened it up, though. Must've been the Mist."

"How deep does this go?"

"Let's find out." Hazel picked up a stone and dropped it in the hatch and listened for the sound of it hitting the ground.

Conner looked up at Hazel after hearing a dull thud. "Ten seconds," he stated.

"Ten seconds too many," Hazel replied. She took off her bag and pulled out a long piece of rope. "I'm gonna need you to lower me down there."

"You… go down there alone?" he questioned.

"Well, you can't go. Who's gonna hold the rope?"

"We could tie it a tree or-"

"No," she commanded, "It's safer this way. If something bad happens then you can pull me up." She spoke with a tone of finality. "And I already told you, tunnels are easy for me to navigate."

Conner clenched his fist. "Fine. But…" he cast a glance at flashlight that fell out of Hazel bag when she took out the rope and picked it up. "Take this. So you won't be blind down there."

The demigoddess took the flashlight and gave him a once over. "Thanks," she mumbled. Conner just nodded and took hold of the rope.

Conner began lowering her down the dark opening with the only light being a small beam from the flashlight he gave her. He noted that she weighed almost nothing. Though she was direct, fiery, and an all-around great fighter she still looked fourteen, at most. Not like Conner could say anything, he wasn't anywhere near that old.

Suddenly the weight Conner felt on the rope completely disappeared, but Hazel made no alarming sounds so he assumed she hit the ground. Conner held still for a moment and waited for the familiar sound of gears grinding together. The first time the horses snuck up on him he barely caught the sound. But all he heard was the soft padding of Hazel's feet.

A full thirty seconds passed by and Conner decided that he was going to yell to Hazel when her flashlight suddenly went out. Then there was a loud grunt from Hazel and the sound of her hitting the wall of the tunnel. Without a moment of hesitation, he jumped through the hatch.

He landed on the ground with a deafening sound. He immediately ran towards Hazel's nervous breathing. In moments like this, infrared vision came in handy. He blinked twice as he registered Hazel's heat signature, she was a little hotter on her left arm- she'd probably been struck there but it couldn't have produced more than a bruise.

Conner rolled with Hazel as he heard the horse approach him, its hooves were silent but its gears squeaked and turned against each other. Conner picked up the stallions heat signature and noticed it was much colder than the tunnel and glowed a bright blue. It reached the wall where they had been and began running itself into it over and over again.

Hazel moved in Conner's grip, "Conner-" the horse lifted its battered head from the wall and turned towards them.

Conner put his hand over Hazel's mouth as quickly as possible without crushing her face. He knew he could pummel the horse one handed but he didn't know if it had any friends nearby. It wasn't a good idea to get into a fight with six of those things while Hazel wandered in the dark. The horse galloped towards them. It was getting so close but it made no move to attack them.

Then it hit him. _It can hear us but it can't us_ he thought to himself. Conner held his breath and clutched Hazel as he took a step. Small enough to not make any sound and big enough so they would be arm's length from the horse. Its stare could've burned holes into Conner but it continued to see nothing. It turned and galloped away.

Conner eased up on Hazel and she seized his shoulder suddenly and tried to move him forward. He was confused at first but then realized that she had her own way of "seeing" in all this shadow. He let her move him forward.

-(Line Break)-

They walked for what felt like hours. Time seemed to stretch out in the suffocating underground. He felt like he was back at Cadmus in a pod. But Hazel seemed to handle herself well. She kept a strong grip on his wrist as she led him. Occasionally a horse would come by and he would touch her shoulder as a sign to stop. They were both doing their jobs to stop them from getting killed.

When Hazel halted Conner had to stop himself from running into her. She whispered something so quietly that only a Kryptonian could've picked it up. "Trust me," she said. Not knowing what to do, he patted her head. Hopefully, she would take that as a positive answer.

"Pick me up. Now take two steps forward," she whispered. They weren't hard tasks, when would the trust come in?

"Now _jump_ ," she spoke with so much confidence that it was startling. But all Conner could think is why would he even attempt to jump in this darkness?

She touched his shoulder. " _Trust me_."

Conner took the deepest breath he had ever taken in his life and took a leap of faith.

Literally.

To be very honest the first sensation Conner felt after jumping was pure fear. Like nothing he'd felt before. Not because he may die, but everyone else would've died as a result of it. Hazel, Nico, Zatanna… they'd all put a bit of trust in him. Another part of him thought about those Shields Lex Luthor had given him and how much they would've helped.

There was a third part of him that finally realized that Hazel was screaming something in his ear.

"What?" he replied, equally as loud.

"Get ready to land!"

Conner blinked the infrared out of his eye. They were falling and they were doing it _fast_. But at the end of whatever chasm they were descending down, there was a light. It was tiny but they were nearing it quickly.

Suddenly the ground (which, luckily, was flat) was under his feet. He bent his knees, rolled to the side, and made sure to protect Hazel's head as they hit the ground.

"Alive?" he asked, still curled around Hazel like a cocoon.

"Alive." she responded.

Hazel rolled out from under him and laid face up, flat on the ground. Conner mimic her position and for a while they just stared up at the dark abyss they had just fallen from.

Then Hazel started laughing and didn't stop until Conner sat up. "What's so funny?"

"I'm just surprised were alive." She wiped tears from her eyes. "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"See in the dark." Hazel sat up as well. "I've got tunnel vision but what about you?"

"Infrared."

Hazel raised an eyebrow, " _Infa-what_?"

"Infrared." he repeated, "Don't they teach you about that in school or something?"

"Where I come from they teach you times tables, _not_ how to see in the dark." Hazel stood up and dusted herself off. "Did you bring my bag?"

"No… I-" he murmured.

"No worries. I've still got my sword so we'll be fine." she assured him. "We'll be in and out in no time. I can feel the gem's energy close by."

"So that means Nico and Zatanna are nearby too."

"Yup, so we should get moving. Oh, and Conner…" she looked up at him with a smile, "Thank you. I would've probably died down here if you didn't come in after me."

"That's- it's, I mean… no problem." he sputtered.

She patted his back, "Let's get going."

The walk through the cavern wasn't nearly gloomy as the tunnels. It helped that it was well lit and it pretty much looked like an empty ballroom with dirt floors and walls. The only thing it lacked was a ceiling, which was so high all you could see was darkness when you looked up.

"I wonder how this place has so much light." Hazel questioned, "It must be some type of complex magic."

"Or it could be those lanterns over there." Conner pointed to the right wall which was lined with bright lanterns. To be honest, they were more like gigantic lantern shaped streetlights. So big that you'd have to raise your head to see where the actual light was.

Hazel inched towards one of the lights and touched it with caution. "This is the same metal used to make the horses."

Conner looked at the streetlight and realized it was in fact the same golden color. "It's just gold, anybody can use gold."

"No this is the same _exact_ gold, that can't be coincidence and you know it."

"So… we should probably keep going." The half-Kryptonian nodded with false understanding. Hazel just rolled her eyes at him.

This was their third stroll of the day but somehow it was less awkward (or scary) than the other two. This time around they actually talked to each other. They chatted about things that seemed so trivial.

"What are the gods like?"

"They're are… okay." Conner recalled the story of how Harmonia almost killed Artemis and knew Hazel had to pick her words carefully.

"What about Hades? He's your dad right?"

"Yes… but no. Hades is Nico's dad. My father is Pluto, who is the Roman form of Hades. They're the same person but…" Hazel looked up at Conner's confused face and sigh, "I've only met father a few times but each time he's been kind to me. You could say I don't know him very well at all."

Hazel's expression when she said that, pulled on Conner's heartstring. "Hazel-"

"Wait do you see that?"

"Hazel you don't have to-"

"No, really Conner _do you see that_?"

Conner looked to where she was pointing and saw something massive and gold. The same gold as the streetlights and horses.

"What is that?" he questioned. When he didn't get an answer he looked down at Hazel and realized she wasn't there anymore. He looked up and saw that Hazel was flat out sprinting towards the gold object. He tried to call out to her as her followed her.

They both slowed to a stop when they were in front of the gold structure. It came as a surprise to Conner when he saw that it was a door.

And a massive one, at that

It stood at about thirty feet and was made of pure gold. It had a two foot tall doorknob made of the whitest ivory, the same ivory was used to frame the huge door.

Being in front of such an imposing structure made Conner realize just how small he was. "It's a door."

"Obviously." Hazel retorted.

Conner raised an eyebrow, "Should we open it?"

"I think that's the only thing left to do."

Hazel gave him a knowing look and Conner was soon pushing on the door with all his strength.

"You need some help, young man?" Hazel joked.

Conner thought back to Lex Luthor's Shields as he struggled slightly. "Nope, I think I got it."

Finally the door began to move. Conner only opened it enough for someone Hazel's size to get in when she made him stop.

"What's wrong?"

"We don't really know what's in there." she said pulling him back from the door. "We don't want to make it easier for whatever made this door to kill us. You hear anything coming from the inside?"

"Just… footsteps. And dragging."

Hazel unsheath her spatha and pointed it towards the door. "Let's give them a surprise when they come through."

They both stood on either side of the small opening Conner made, ready to attack. The sounds of footsteps got closer and closer. Their maker's nose was just sticking out of the door's opening. Without thinking Conner threw a punch before he could even acknowledge who the person was.

Conner was a little more than impressed when they dodged his punch and landed on the ground.

"What's wrong with you? Are you trying to _kill_ me?"

"Nico?"

"...Hazel?"

"Nico!" Hazel tried to tackle her brother with a hug but tripped over Zatanna who was also on the floor.

"Zatanna!" she exclaimed and turned towards the magician.

Zatanna just groaned in response.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she helped her up.

"I've had better days."

Conner nodded at her and she smiled and nodded back.

Nico stood up and dusted himself off and Hazel finally gave him his hug. "We were coming to rescue you!"

"Since when have I needed rescuing?" her brother asked.

"Plenty of times."

"Name one."

"That time you got stuck in a jar, the time you were turned into corn, Percy's told about you in the Labyrinth, and-"

"Gods damn it sis, I said name _one_."

"Good to have you back too."

"You need help standing?" Conner asked as he moved towards his teammate. She didn't seem like she was is in any condition to walk.

Zatanna shook her head, "Nico dragged-"

" _Carried_."

"Nico _carried_ me all the way over here," she said shooting a look at the son of Hades, "I've had enough time to rest."

"What happened in there?" Conner let her lean on his shoulder, "Why are you so worn out?"

Hazel and Nico met eyes. "Just like my dream?"

"Just like your dream."

"Conner take Zatanna." Hazel ordered, "We need to get moving."

Conner was already planning on it. He picked up the magician in one swift movement.

"Hey, I said I was fine." she protested weakly.

Hazel smiled, "I'm sure you are but we need to move quickly. We don't know if that silhouette from my dream will show up."

Suddenly the doors behind them began to open much faster than Conner moved them.

"Looks like it's too late for that." Nico gaped.

The man who opened the door stepped out from behind it and Conner couldn't help but flinch at his appearance. He was a huge man, around twenty feet tall, and he was _ugly_. So ugly that the only person that Conner could think of that could describe how ugly he was, was Kid Flash. To put it in his own words it was like a toddler was trying to make a human being from scratch and just put random piece of flesh on a skeleton.

"Lord Vulcan, no, Lord _Hephaestus_." Hazel stuttered.

Conner gave Hazel an astonished look. _Was_ that _a god?_ he thought.

"Sorry kids, but I can't let you leave." Hephaestus spoke with a deep voice, "And especially with that gem."

"Despite what you heard my Lord, we don't plan on using the Necklace's power against you."

"Then why did you come with that girl, Harmonia's legacy." he pointed at Zatanna who stood frozen. "I sense the blood of a goddess in her."

"Lord Hephaestus," Hazel stepped up, "All the things you heard us say to Harmonia were lies. We needed her to tell what she wanted to hear so we could know where her Necklace was."

"Why would you need Harmonia's Necklace." He scratched what looked like his chin. "All it does is bring bad luck, that's what I intended it to do."

Nico waved to catch the god's attention. "The prophecy said that we need it to make peace with the mortals."

Hephaestus turned his massive misshapen head towards Conner and Zatanna. They waved stiff at the god who only nodded back.

He put his hand on his chin again and began shrinking down until he was about seven feet tall. "So it was all a big misunderstanding." His expression changed from anger to understanding.

Hazel and Nico both let out sighs of relief.

"Let me see the gem." The god walked towards them with his hand out. Hazel and Nico went stiff. "I'm not going to keep it. Just give it here."

Nico reached in his pocket, pulled out the green gem and placed the it in Hephaestus's hand. He examined it and turned it around in his palm. "It did absorb some of Harmy's peace loving energy over the years but for it to do _any_ peacemaking you need to get rid of the curse."

"How would you suggest we do that?" Nico inquired.

"The girl should know." Conner assumed he was talking about Hazel but when Hephaestus pointed at Zatanna he was a little surprised.

Zatanna glanced around. " _Me_?"

"Yes, you." Hephaestus urged, "You're a legacy, but not of Harmonia. She's been helping you for a while I'm sure she would again."

Hephaestus tossed the jewel back at Nico and grew in size as he walked back towards the door. "There's a door with a staircase behind it to your right, it should lead you back to the forest." Right where he pointed a human-sized ivory door appeared. "Good luck."

"Wait, Lord Hephaestus." Nico stopped Hephaestus before he could close the door behind him. "Why are you helping us?"

Conner, Hazel, and Zatanna's head snapped towards Nico then they met each other's eyes. _Why would he ask that?_ When the giant god guy gives you just what you need to complete a quest you don't question it.

Hephaestus contorted his lumpy face. "The last thing we need is conflict between the mortals and gods while Olympus is recovering from Gaea." he scratched his beard awkwardly, "And I haven't forgotten how you saved my son. Now get out of my cave before you destroy another one of my horses." Hephaestus closed his giant door behind him.

There was a stale silence in the air that was broken by Hazel. " _Why would you ask him that_?" she pushed his shoulder, "He could've smite us or something."

"Was he thanking us?" Zatanna asked.

Conner shifted the girl in his arm. "Let's get out of here first and ask questions later."

"I agree." Nico was already walking towards the exit.

-(Line Break)-

Zatanna took a big breath then breathed out. "I wish I knew how great fresh air was before I was dragged down there."

Conner came out the hatch he jumped through a few hours ago, right after Zatanna (who recovered half way up the stairs enough to walk). He offered his hand to Hazel who came out after him. "I didn't think this would lead us back here," she said as she took his hand, "I don't know how Hephaestus does it."

Nico pulled himself out next wearing an apathetic expression. Zatanna raised an eyebrow at him. "How can you look so bored. Didn't we just dragged ourselves out of a dark prison, negotiated with a giant god, and walked up the equivalent of twenty flights of stairs."

"How'd you guys get out of there anyway?" Conner questioned.

Nico and Zatanna met eyes. "...magic." she said after a long pause.

"I thought you had to talk to cast spells. In Hazel's dream you were asleep." Conner talked slowly, "And I don't think you're a sleep talker."

The demigods and Zatanna stood still without uttering a word.

"Something's up and Hephaestus confirmed it. What's going on with you, Zatanna? You might want to answer that truthfully because I'm kind of tired of being lied to." What he was saying was ironic in some ways. Conner who had been lying about his Shields and meeting with Lex Luthor was trying to call her a liar. He tried to bury the feeling of guilt rising in his throat and looked down at Zatanna.

Hazel laid a hand on his shoulder, "Conner, wait-"

"No, I think it's time I told him." Zatanna stepped up to Conner, "Superboy, I think… maybe, possibly, potentially..."

Nico groaned, "Just get on with it!"

Zatanna took a deep breath, "I think I'm a demigod… or something."

Conner finally spoke after a long pause, "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious, Superboy!"

"So the person Hephaestus was talking about… the person that's helping you is god?"

She nodded her head. "A goddess, actually."

"I've been thinking about what Hephaestus said," Hazel spoke, "I wasn't sure before but now I'm positive that it's Hecate."

"Of course! Only the goddess of magic could take off a curse." Nico exclaimed putting his hand to his face in exasperation, "Zatanna, she's been talking to for awhile now, right? Can you ask her how to take off the curse?"

"I could try." Zatanna nodded and closed her eyes. She was silent for only a few moments, then she let out a frustrated groan, "It's not working."

"How is it not working? Try again!"

"No, if she wanted to say something she would've said it already. The one time I need her she doesn't have anything to say, even though she's been in my head for awhile."

"How long is 'awhile'" Conner asked.

"...since Leo broke out."

"That long?" he exclaimed.

"I didn't think it was important."

"Not important," Conner retorted, "You might be a _demigod_."

"Actually, she's a legacy, according to Hephaestus." Nico butt in.

"Do you mean like descendant?" Zatanna asked.

"Basically, legacies are mortals who are second generation, and so on, descendants of gods. So Hecate could be your grandmother or something."

"I'm sorry to interrupt this very intriguing vocabulary lesson," Conner blurted, "But I'm still _very_ confused."

Nico shook his fist at him, "Don't you take that sassy tone with me young man."

"Why do you _and_ Hazel both call me 'young man'?"

"Hey guys," Hazel yelled over them, "I hate to interrupt the wonderful arguments you're having but I think you should all take a look at what I just found in my bag." Hazel passed a semi transparent piece of parchment to Nico who read it quickly.

The siblings looked at each other and spoke in unison, "Just like the dream."

"Let's go." Nico said as he pushed the paper in his pocket along with the green gem.

"Can I see?" Zatanna separated from Conner, "What did the note say?"

"I'll tell you when we get to the Piazza della Minerva. Which way is that, sis?" Hazel pointed out of the meadow and Nico nodded.

"Nico, wait a second!" Zatanna yelled as she followed after him.

Conner took a step forward too but Hazel touched his arm. He turned towards the smaller girl and she stood on her tiptoes and gave a kiss on his cheek. Conner furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What…"

"Thanks for not being a complete blockhead today." she punched his shoulder, "And don't give Zatanna a hard time, she's still trying to figure out what's going on too." At that note she ran towards the end of the meadow.

Conner stood there for a second then he took off, following the small demigoddess, still absentmindedly rubbing his cheek.

* * *

 **This is by far the longest chapter I've written. But I think it was also my favorite!**

 **Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up soon (hopefully)!**


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